Experiment
by Kitty of Insanity
Summary: A story with pokemorphs, immortals, crazy people, and grammar. What else could you want in your fanfiction? Heck, how about an evil team that's NOT Rocket related? How about that? COMPLETE
1. Part 1

**Experiment**

By: Kitty of Insanity

[Book 1 of the Sixth Saga…

Synopsis: A man is subjected unwillingly to illegal, genetic experiments by a criminal team, and his dearest friend is caught in the crossfires of it all. The team is trying to retrieve back their escape experiment, and they are willing to do just about anything.

People the two had never met before this adventure (including a crazy Kadabra-man) now depend solely on the actions of this man and his friend, a woman with the name of Destiny. Will the two of them succeed in saving themselves and these practical strangers? What deep secrets lie within the past of this man and Destiny?

Will this experiment succeed in what is to be accomplished?

What great things will Fate decide?

-----

Author's Note:

Don't let the synopsis fool you into thinking this story is completely cheesey. I don't like to give things away, as I like to preserve awesome twists in the story. I will give you this much:

I like to think of everything that occurs in the story as occring in an alternate universe to the pokèmon world we all know and love (you'll soon see how pokèmon play a role in the story).

Also, if the synopsis seems dull, be warned, there _is_ comedic relief.

On a different note, I'm only setting this up because my friend thinks I need to. _

Also, I started writing it a few years ago, and I haven't done any serious revising at all, so if the first part stinks a bit, blame the ignorance of youth.

It might also help some of you to know that this story is already completed; I'm just setting it up one part at a time.

So, now begins on the great trek of deception, love, courage, and awesome fight scenes.

Do note that I don't own Pokèmon. If I did, I wouldn't waste my time writing fanfics for the general public. I'd make you pay money for my awesomeness. X3

(Rated about K+ (ages nine +) for awesome fight scenes and a little blood later on, by the way.)

Role film.]

---

_Experiment_

Part 1

---

Wind blew through the leaves, moving them ever so slightly. An endless sea of stars illuminated the night sky, only to be broken by islands of black clouds. All was quiet, all was calm, and all was peaceful.

Except for the mind of a lone dragonite. His back was leaned against the wall of a cave as he sat on the barren floor. His arms were crossed, his eyes had a soulless stare as they blocked his mind away from everything in the outside world.

But despite his eyes' best efforts, they still reflected a sadness that only a depressed being could possess.

The dragonite closed his eyes and sighed. He stood up from the sitting position he had been in for so long. It was time to face some of the thoughts that had been tormenting his mind ever since he had been shown the problem.

He could no longer keep this a secret…

---

A girl looking to be in her late teens stood making a dinner for two in the little kitchen. He hadn't been back to the cabin since he had left nearly a month ago. Frankly, she knew he wouldn't be gone too long, and that he would probably be back today or tomorrow, though she hoped desperately that it would be today.

She suddenly realized she had left the knife on the other counter. She turned a little and narrowed her eyes in concentration. The knife handle flew into her hand; she turned back around, and began chopping the ingredients again. She smiled to herself, humming at a low volume.

Before she came here, she never could have done that.

But then, there were a whole lot of things that she could do now that she couldn't do before…

She put the ingredients into a frying pan and began to stir them.

She moved a strand of light brown hair that had fallen in front of her dark green eyes.

He had better get back from training his pokemon soon. She had made plenty of this food for the two of them.

---

The scientist in his white lab coat stood in the middle of the wrecked laboratory. The glass had been cleaned up, but a lot of the other wreckage from the blasts was still left. The broken, giant glass cylinder's middle was missing. The bottom and top of the cylinder were still there, jagged like sharp mountain peaks look in the distance.

The scientist sighed and walked over to the computer. It was the only working one left in this room and was still on from the time before the experiment had gotten away.

The scientist moved the mouse, clearing the screen of the screensaver it had had on it.

The scientist's eyes narrowed, as he looked at the picture of a young man with red hair, then the profile. It had been a costly mistake.

They should have picked another…

---

_//Darkness. Cold liquid. Stale air. All this, everywhere. Was this death? No, there would be no way of knowing, thinking, if this were death. This was different. Felt all different._

_Voices? Why were there voices? Different voices._

_Wait… Where was this? What's going on? Something, so many things felt different. Panic. What did all this mean? So confused…So afraid…//_

-

The girl awoke from the freak dream with a bit of a start. Her green eyes were wide open. She looked around to find that she was sitting in the familiar setting of the living room.

She thought back a moment, remembering what had happened last night.

She had finished her dinner, fed the pokemon theirs, and had put the leftovers in the fridge. After which, she had fallen asleep on the armchair while watching TV, along with the espeon that had curled up in her lap.

Speaking of which…

The girl waved her hand and the once noisy TV went blank and mute. She then got up and draped a blanket on her.

"Espeon," she said in a dry, tired voice, "here girl. Now where are you, you little bugger?"

"Es!" a little voice said, coming from the kitchen.

A little silver head popped out from the kitchen doorway. Soon a dainty, silver, cat-like body followed it.

"On!" the espeon nearly squealed as she trotted over to the front door and sat down, tilting her head and staring up at the knob, as if expecting it to open.

The girl smiled and walked over to the espeon's side, where she crouched down and pet the top of espeon's soft head.

"So you think he's gonna be back soon too, huh?" she asked the espeon.

The espeon looked up at the girl with its big violet colored eyes. The girl automatically got a feeling from the espeon that suggested the little creature had a similar, but quite different feeling.

"I hope you're wrong on this one girl," the girl said as she got up, "I don't want something bad to have happened…"

The espeon kept looking at the girl, this time sending her a different message.

"I know that you've never been wrong, but that doesn't mean I can't hope you are this time…"

With that, the girl walked to her room, turning around once more to look at the sunrise painted behind the windows, opened the bedroom door, and went inside to get dressed.

She wondered if her dream had anything to do with what might have happened to him…

---

The wind slashed at the dragonite's face as he flew as quick as he could to his destination. He was getting close. He could now see the pond that the cabin was near.

Excitement grew in him. He was nearly there, just a little further to go.

Something out of the corner of his eye suddenly caught his attention. It was an off-road vehicle traveling down the dirt road that connected to the lake.

Well, so much for plan "A".

The vehicle was a ways behind him, so he could still get there before them, but he wouldn't have enough time to do what he wanted to. He would have to get in and out of there as fast as he could.

Boy would that be a blast.

He was nearly to the cabin now, barely off shore above the lake.

He slowed down just enough to make sure he wouldn't overshoot it, then put his breaks on, landing right in front of the porch.

He ran up to the door and knocked hard on it.

"Just a second!" came a female voice from inside.

A moment later the door flew open, revealing a girl who looked to be in her mid to late teens and an espeon that looked up at the dragonite with a small, curiosity in her eyes.

The girl, for a brief moment looked disappointed, but the expression was soon replaced by a welcoming smile.

"Sorry, it's just that I was expecting someone," the girl said apologetically, "My name is Destiny. Please, come in."

The dragonite quickly stepped inside and began looking for something. He had to find a way to get her to get out right then and there; but how?

"Excuse me, but what are you doing?" Destiny asked.

She looked down at her espeon and asked, "What _is_ that dragonite doing?

The espeon looked up at her and just said, "Pee," before looking back at the near panicking dragonite.

"Yeah, that really helps," Destiny said sarcastically before looking back at the searching dragonite also.

The dragonite stopped, nearly knocking himself on the head for not having thought of it before. All he needed was a picture…

He turned and headed for a group of pictures on a shelf. He picked up one of them and showed it to the puzzled girl.

She looked at the picture a moment and then finally thought of what he might very well have meant by him handing her the picture.

"You know where this guy is?" she asked the dragonite desperately.

The dragonite blinked and seemed to ponder this for a brief second, then began nodding his head in an exited sort of matter.

"Could you bring me to him?"

Again the dragonite nodded.

"Right now?"

More nodding came from the dragonite.

The girl ran into her room, coming out the next moment prepared to go.

The dragonite couldn't help but gawk at how quickly the girl had gotten ready.

She grinned then asked, "Surprised huh?"

Then, turning a little to her left, she took a deep breath and shouted, "ALAKAZAM, GARDEVOIR, NINETALES! GET OVER HERE!"

Within a moment of calling them, the pokemon appeared. Alakazam and Gardevoir had used teleport and Ninetales, who had been in another room, just walked out.

"Okay you three, I'm going on a little trip and bringing you guys along, so"-Destiny produced three pokeballs- "into the pokeballs you go!" She returned the pokemon, then turned to the dragonite.

"Well then, we best- What's wrong?" Destiny asked, seeing the worried expression on the dragonite's face.

The dragonite let out a low growl as he looked out the window. They had been quick, but not quick enough. The off-road vehicle was within site of the cabin now, and it was getting closer. They had to get out of there.

"Let me guess… Those guys are bad news," Destiny said.

The dragonite nodded.

Destiny sighed and closed her eyes for a short moment. She then opened them and walked over to the dragonite.

She put her hand on the dragonite's shoulder and said, "I'm going to teleport us to the forest north of the lake. Is that okay?"

The dragonite nodded.

The dragonite felt as though he were disassembled for a brief moment, then put back together again after feeling somewhat dragged around.

The scenery was no longer that of a log cabin's interior, but that of forest, full of greenery and life.

Destiny looked seriously into the dragonite's eyes and said, "Well, now you know one of the great secrets of my life. Keep it secret, okay?"

Her gaze made him feel nervous. It was like staring into the eyes of a predator, about to pounce on its enemy, given that the foe did not surrender. The dragonite gulped and gave a nod.

The girl's face suddenly went from serious, to perfectly happy and friendly.

"Well, then what are we waiting for?" she said cheerfully.

The dragonite sweat-dropped and sighed. He was starting to wonder why he didn't just leave her right there, right now.

"Espee!" the espeon said with a serious look on its face, as it looked at the dragonite.

The dragonite looked at the espeon and sighed. He turned his back to Destiny and gestured for her and espeon to get on.

After Destiny and espeon got on the dragonite's back, it was time for take off. The dragonite spread his wings, jumped, and flapped down hard. Soon they were soaring high above the land that was so green with trees and other plant-life. Soon they were soaring far away from the small blue pond, to a place that was unknown to Destiny.

---

The two grunts rammed the door together one last time, forcing the door open.

"Search the entire house! I want that girl, or any of her pokemon, found immediately!" a man in a dark green outfit shouted to the grunts.

"Yes sir!" answered the grunts, saluting in the process.

The grunts were just about to search the house, when a man with blue hair and a sky blue overcoat on, stopped them.

"Don't bother. You'll find nothing of importance, and all you'll end up doing is wasting time. She left already and ordered her pokemon into hiding," the man said, "So let's just leave before I get too bored."

"I have to be sure of it myself first, Croy," the man in green said.

"What is it, Commander? You not trust my instincts? Or do you not trust me?" Croy asked in an almost smug kind of way.

The commander glared at Croy, then turned to his men and said, "Alright, back to the vehicle!"

Croy was the first one back to the vehicle. He hopped into the driver's seat and waited for the others to get in too.

One of the grunts stopped one of his pals.

"Why did the commander bend to Croy's will like that?" the one who'd stopped his friend asked.

"Because Croy's someone you want on your side. Trust me," the fellow grunt answered.

"Why?"

"Because, rookie, his instincts are always right on the money. Some think he's even psychic."

"Oh, I see."

"That, and he's a real good fighter."

The two grunts headed to the vehicle and got in with the rest of the party.

Soon the vehicle started up, and headed down the road, away from the cabin.

---

**FLASH BACK *****

They were catching up to him.

He had no idea what they were, but they were fast, even too fast for him.

The things had come out of no where. He had just been training a little ways from a cliff wall, when they had shot out of a cave entrance high up on the cliff.

He had learned they were unfriendly the moment they had started shooting at him.

They were pod-shaped with small fins that barely came off their sides. They were man-made for sure, for they had a black tinted front window shield while everything else was white. They had fired automatic bullets at him, and had almost caught him off guard.

Luckily for him, they hadn't quite done that.

He had seen them shoot out from the cliff side, so he had recalled all but one pokemon, his dragonite. He had then jumped on the dragonite's back and the pokemon burst into flight, just as the first stream of bullets had come, narrowly missing either of them.

He had been very lucky indeed.

But right now he needed to get away from them, and bad. There was no telling what could happen if he didn't.

Suddenly, a green ray shot past his left, narrowly missing him.

Right then and there, he needed to find some cover. That could help him a whole lot.

Then he remembered something as he saw an opening in the cliff wall coming up.

"T A! Cliff, crack! Then stop!" the man shouted to his dragonite.

His dragonite was trained to know what that meant. He was to take a sharp turn away from and at the opening in the cliff wall. Afterwards he was to stop after his trainer gave the order.

The dragonite followed orders flawlessly. As soon as his head was parallel to the opening, he veered into the nearby forest so that the opening was directly behind them.

"Now!" the trainer shouted.

The dragonite's wings flared and stopped it almost as soon as the man had given the order. The man jumped off the dragonite and listened as he heard the jets pass.

The trainer took off the belt he that held his pokeballs and gave it to his dragonite.

"Keep them safe, no matter what," he told his dragonite quickly, "Start to head back. If I get out fine, I'll find another means of transportation. Wait for it to be all clear before flying. Now go!"

He watched as his dragonite nodded and began running off into the forest.

The jets began tearing up the place with a rain of bullets. The trainer frowned.

"Sorry, but I have no other choice…" the man said to himself under his breath.

He dashed out from the forest towards the opening. If he could just make it, he might be safe. If he could just make it.

Suddenly, a beam of green light headed towards him. He tried to dodge it, but wasn't fast enough. Pain shot through his body, then all went blank. Like a dream.

Or a nightmare.

**End Flashback*********

---

Destiny stared at the dragonite that sat across of the fire from her.

The dragonite had flown all day with her on his back, yet showed little signs of being exhausted, if any. What was even stranger was that neither she nor her espeon could pick up if the dragonite had friendly or otherwise intentions for them.

"So," she started, looking at the dragonite, "where're we headed?"

The dragonite looked up at the girl, a soulless look in his eyes. He looked back at the fire after a brief moment.

Destiny gave a small grin and said, "Oh, okay. Yeah, I guess you couldn't tell me anyway, huh?"

The dragonite looked back up. This time, however, his eyes held a certain sadness and desire. For what, Destiny wished partly not to know.

His eyes soon looked away as he laid down, his back turned to Destiny and her espeon.

Destiny looked sadly at the dragonite.

"Good night," she said as she got up and poured a bucket of water on the fire.

She crawled, after, into her sleeping bag, her espeon curled up by the top of her head, on the soft grass.

Sleep soon fell upon Destiny.

---

Croy leaned back in his seat. He couldn't figure out any other way to lure him out of hiding.

Croy rubbed the pencil's eraser against his temple and sighed.

"I guess this is, after all, the only way…" he said to himself. "If I can get a hold of the girl first—"

A knock was heard at the door.

"Sir?" a muffled voice said, "Sorry, but there's someone here to see you."

Croy opened a drawer and stuck the papers that were on top of his desk in it, closing it right afterwards.

"Let them in," Croy answered.

The door opened, revealing a woman in a blue and gray uniform. They were mainly gray with stripes of blue running down along the hems of her pants and shirt, which revealed her midriff. She also had knee long, blue, wavy hair that matched the blue on her outfit, as well as light gray eyes.

"Hey Croy-boy," the woman said as she shut the door behind her.

"Tell me what you want to, then get out of here Bell," Croy coldly stated.

"Oh, Croy. You know you shouldn't talk to an elite member like that," Bell remarked.

Croy stared at the beautiful woman across the room for several moments then gave a sigh.

"This better be good," he said, "I was working on something before you came in."

Bell walked over to Croy's desk. She placed one hand on her hip and smacked the other hand on Croy's desktop. She then leaned so her face was a foot away from Croy's and gave him a smirk.

"Now why else would I have come but to bring you good news?" she asked him.

Several moments passed. Croy's eyes stared into Bell's own, soulless, uncaring.

Bell lost her smirk and gave Croy a now somewhat disappointed look.

"Fine," Bell finally said, standing up straight, "I'm sure you wouldn't be interested in the information I managed to dig up on the 'experiment's' girlfriend."

"Oh. You found some new information? Interesting," Croy said, now somewhat interested in the conversation.

"You won't believe this, but the girl was really hard to find anything on," Bell said, walking over to get a chair, "Almost like someone was trying to hide her."

"Not surprised there," Croy said, as he watched Bell grab a chair and slide it in front of his desk, "I tried to get some information and came up empty."

"Well, what I found, it was very… strange, to say the least," Bell said as she sat down and leaned forward, "You remember how the reports say she looks, at the latest, nineteen?"

"Yes," Croy said, lifting an eyebrow in interest.

"Well she's not. She's actually a lot older! About a year younger than the experiment! Who was strangely older than he appeared also, I might add," Bell said with a hint of concern and worry.

"Hmm… That is _very_ nice information," Croy said, "Thank you."

"Well," Bell started, "what do you think of it?"

"Nothing yet," Croy answered.

Bell looked at Croy for a brief moment, then got up.

"Well, you probably want to get done with whatever you were working on before," Bell said, "I'd better be off."

With that, she walked out the door, shutting it gently behind her.

"Thank you Bell. If I have it right, than the information you gave me is more valuable than you could ever realize," Croy said as he leaned back in his chair, "Much more valuable…"

---

Wind whipped through Destiny's hair as she rode on to the dragonite's back.

It was late afternoon and they had been flying since a little after dawn.

_I should've eaten a bigger breakfast_, Destiny thought to herself.

She was tired, hungry, and stiff from sitting on the dragonite's back for such a long amount of time. She just wasn't used to it.

She felt her espeon slink back further. Destiny had put her espeon in front of her so it wouldn't fall off easily.

"What's wrong?" Destiny asked the little pokemon.

Suddenly, a feeling hit Destiny, and it hadn't come from her espeon.

She was picking up a very negative kind of intentional energy in front of them. In other words, they were headed straight towards trouble.

There seemed to be a clearing in the forest a ways in front of them and the energy felt to be coming from there.

"Dragonite? Can we go around that clearing? I have a feeling that it's not a good idea to go-" Destiny started to say, but stopped.

The energy had disappeared. Like whatever it was had vanished.

"Never mind. I think it's fine now…" Destiny said, yet doubted.

The dragonite began to slow and lose altitude as they neared the clearing.

"Dragonite? What are you doing?" Destiny asked worriedly.

The dragonite made a gesture of raising his closed fist to its mouth, as if lifting a fork or spoon to its mouth.

"Lunch? But I don't know if eating there is a good idea…" Destiny said unsure of what was going on.

The dragonite continued its previous action of losing speed and altitude. It apparently thought the place perfectly safe to land.

Soon the dragonite landed on the ground and both Destiny and her espeon hopped off and began stretching.

"Thank God! I thought I wasn't going to be able to move!" Destiny exclaimed.

Espeon suddenly stopped in the middle of a stretch, looked into the forest, gave a slight hiss, and went into a battle stance.

A man with blue hair and a light blue overcoat stepped out of the woods. His face was blank, but still made you want to go and hide in a safe place, for nothing but terrible intent could be seen in it. The man could make anyone who wasn't familiar with him feel his or her own skin crawl with fear.

Destiny's face held only surprise, for she had seen his face before.

"Daemon?" she asked, stunned.

"Close, but no," the man said calmly. "I'm Croy, not Daemon."

"But, you—he—I—what's going on?" Destiny exclaimed.

"You'll find out soon enough," Croy said with a cold smile on his face. "Dragonite, get her for me, will you?"

The dragonite that had been accompanying them suddenly grabbed Destiny and knocked her head, so that she fell unconscious in its arm.

Her espeon lunged at the dragonite, only to be knocked to the ground unconscious as well.

The dragonite looked at the little espeon with pity. It was just about to throw Destiny onto its shoulder, when it was plowed right into by something.

The dragonite let go of Destiny as it flew onto the ground. She had almost fallen to the ground, when the thing that had plowed into the dragonite caught her.

It was a man who appeared to be in his mid to late twenties, wore a black outfit, that had red running down the middle of his shirt and red on the inside of the upper part of his legs that went to about the middle of the front of his legs. He also had a cape that was red on the inside and black out the exterior part. He had red, spiked hair possibly six inches in length and a serious look on his face.

His amber eyes turned and looked at the dragonite that was attempting to get up.

"Well, it seemed you figured that bit out," Croy said to the man, sounding somewhat amused. "Dragonite, you get all three of them. I don't feel like fighting today."

The dragonite got up and looked at the man who had just tackled it, readying itself for battle. The man just looked at the dragonite and did not let Destiny go.

"I really don't feel like fighting either," the red-haired man said. "I'm tired and just want to be left alone."

"That's not an option," Croy said, raising his voice with a hint of anger. "You either come peacefully, or as a beat up piece of junk."

"Funny thing is, I don't like those options," the man with red hair replied.

He then looked at Destiny and placed her down.

"But I guess that means I have to pick the third one," he continued as he stood up. "Beat you guys and leave with my friend here."

"Not going to happen," sneered Croy. "Dragonite, pummel him."

The dragonite's claw began to glow and it then charged at the red-haired man, claws ready to bury into and tear the flesh of the man, if need be.

The red-haired man quickly touched his wrists together so that his palms faced the charging dragonite. A blast of yellow energy shot from them, hitting the now surprised dragonite and forcing it to fly backwards into a tree.

Croy's eyes widened in astonishment.

"That—that's impossible. You shouldn't have been able to figure out how to do that this quickly!" he shouted.

The red-haired man just turned his head and looked at Croy.

"Nothing's impossible, just improbable," the red-haired man said after a moment. "I learned that a long, long time ago."

By the time the man had finished saying this, the dragonite had shaken off most of the shock and pain. It resumed its battle stance and opened its mouth, charging a hyper beam.

The red-haired man looked over at the dragonite, turned around, and then quickly grabbed up Destiny and her espeon.

The yellow beam fired where the red-haired man had been standing, nearly ripping apart everything in its path.

The dragonite stopped firing the ray of energy. Nothing stood in the path that the beam had traveled, not even the man with red hair did.

The dragonite frowned. He knew that it was too easy, meaning the man had escaped the blast. He also knew his master would not be pleased at all with this.

"You idiot!" Croy shouted at the dragonite, "You let them get away! Now we have no way of getting them!"

Croy turned around and marched angrily towards the forest.

"I don't know why I even bother with you," Croy said as he entered the woods.

The dragonite gave a sigh and looked down. He felt useless and stupid, totally outcaste from any part of the world.

He felt there was nothing he could do to make the pain go away. He'd never belong anywhere, ever.

---

Destiny awoke, feeling a cold stone ground underneath her.

She sat up, then quickly grabbed her head. She had a really bad headache, and it felt as if someone was inside her head, trying to drill their way out.

"You okay?" a familiar voice asked.

"Yeah, I just have a bad—" Destiny stopped in the middle of what she was saying and looked up at the person who had spoken to her.

It was the red-haired man who had saved her from being kidnapped by Croy and the dragonite; though, she didn't know that he was the one that saved her yet. He was sitting on a rock, watching her.

Her face brightened and her eyes filled with joy. For a moment, she even forgot she had a headache.

She got up and ran over to the man, wrapping her arms around his sides and back.

"Oh, Lance!" Destiny said as she embraced her missed friend, "I thought something horrible had happened to you!"

Lance put his arms around her as he hugged her back.

"I'm afraid those feelings may not have been too misplaced," he said softly after a moment.

Destiny let go and kneeled in front of Lance, looking up at his face. It was then that she noticed how tired and worn he seemed.

"Lance, what is it?" Destiny asked, suddenly concerned.

"I… Part of me just wished to show you… But I knew that that was…" Lance said, looking down, and seemingly confused as to what to say. "But I just didn't…"

"Lance, it's okay. Just tell me," Destiny said, knowing her friend never stumbled over himself unless something really out of place had just happened.

Lance sighed, put his elbows on his lap, folded his hands together, and then put his chin against his folded hands. His eyes gave a deep look of concentration, like he was trying to find the best way he could possibly say this.

After a moment he sat up straight and took a deep breath.

"As you already know, I was out training," he started, "but then something went horribly wrong. I was attacked by some new kind of ship. They seemed pretty complicated, and they had some sort of electrical beam that knocked me out in one shot.

"I awoke later completely confused. The first thought that occurred to me was that I was dead. I soon figured out I wasn't obviously, but it just might have been better if I had been. It ends up that I had been trespassing on some property of some sort of secret organization or something. They specialized in creating new things, like the ships that had attacked me. What was worse was that they were also delving into stuff that does things to pokemon and humans.

"I found out soon enough that they had decided to use me as a little experiment. I was able to escape right away, but only because I had lost myself in panic," Lance said, seeming to end his story.

"But," Destiny said after a moment, "there's nothing different about you. At least, none that I can see of…"

"That's because I figured out how to make myself appear normal," Lance replied, "At least, temporarily."

"What do you mean by 'temporarily'?" Destiny asked, even more worried now than she'd been before.

Lance sighed.

"That's what I don't want to show you," Lance said, looking down at his hands, "and I know this is only temporary because I get weaker in this form."

"Lance, you're starting to really get me worried," Destiny said with deep concern.

Lance got up and walked over next to Destiny, where he sat down next to her, sitting so he faced the opposite direction she was facing.

"I'm going to show you what they did to me," Lance said, "When I do it, you can read the thoughts I want you to hear. It's not like you'd be forcing yourself into my mind, so you technically wouldn't be breaking your vow."

"But why am I going to need to read your mind?" Destiny asked.

"You'll see," Lance answered, "This is really going to wear me out me, so if I faint, don't go crazy on me, okay?"

Lance turned his head and looked at Destiny as she stared at him. She nodded wordlessly, concern seen easily in her eyes.

Lance looked straight ahead and gave a sigh. This was the moment he was afraid would happen. This was the moment that he also knew _had_ to happen.

Pain shot through his body and he leaned forward. Destiny shouted his name and turned so she faced his side. She put her hand on his back and looked wide-eyed at him.

Little did she know that that was, in comparison, the minor pain that he would have to go through in this process.

Lance's skin and clothing began to gain a yellow hue, except for the front of his neck and the front of his torso and stomach area, which began to turn white. His skin also began to bulk, as his clothes seemed to melt into his skin. His face then began to change after his skin and clothing. His nose and mouth began to extend to form a snout. His hair then began to turn yellow and shorten. Yellow antennas sprouted out from the top of his head, a horn began to grow a little closer to his forehead, between them. A few moments later, Destiny noticed a thick tail begin to grow out from his lower back.

About a minute afterwards, the changes had stopped and a dragonite now sat, bent over, panting heavily in front of Destiny. He was covered in sweat and looked exhausted.

"Lance…?" Destiny asked in disbelief as she stared at the dragonite.

'_I would think so_,' Destiny heard Lance say inside her head, '_By the way, you can hear me, right?_'

Lance turned his head and looked at the astonished Destiny. She nodded her head a little in response to Lance's question.

'_Good_,' Lance said, '_that makes things nicer…_'

Suddenly, Lance fell forward. Destiny caught his chest with her hand then leaned him back against her other arm.

His eyes were shut and his breathing seemed to be stabilized and good. Still…

Destiny stared at Lance with pity in her eyes.

"Oh, Lance," she whispered. "What did they do to you?"

A movement in the corner of Destiny's eye quickly caught her attention.

She looked over to see that her espeon had recovered and was up and about. The espeon walked over to Destiny and sat down. She looked at the dragonite then at Destiny, sending Destiny a message using feelings.

"Yeah, this is Lance," Destiny said is response to the sent feelings.

A different vibe came from the espeon.

"Please stop telling me you told me so," Destiny said, sounding a little annoyed.

The espeon ceased giving off emotions and looked over at the cave entrance. Destiny followed the espeon's gaze. The sky was painted in the assorts of colors only a sunset could create on that canvas.

"I guess I should go and get things ready for night, huh?" Destiny said, turning to look at her espeon.

The espeon just turned her head and looked at her master's face.

Destiny sighed and gently placed Lance down. She looked at him with pity, then got up.

"I'll start with the fire wood then," Destiny said as she walked towards the cave entrance.

---

The young man hopped off the checkup table. He took a deep breath and headed towards the door.

"Hey. Where do you think you're going?" the blonde haired, female doctor asked.

The man turned and looked at the young woman. She had short, neck long blonde hair, a white lab coat on, a pair of glasses, dark green eyes, and was a nice height, not that tall, but not exactly short.

The man himself was dirty blonde, had dark brown eyes, and wore a green outfit. He was a tall and fairly handsome young man.

"I may see nothing wrong with you physically," said the doctor, "but I definitely know something is wrong with you otherwise."

The man sighed.

"I failed today," he said. "I failed miserably."

The woman smiled at the young man and tried to seem hopeful for him.

"Don't worry, things will look up Ricky, you'll see," she said.

"I just don't know," Ricky said. "The only thing Croy seemed to not be so mad about was me finding out that that girl I tried to help Croy capture is psychic."

"Well at least you got that," the doctor said.

"Trish, with the way I'm working, I won't be able to get out of here until I'm old enough to be a great grandfather!" Ricky said in frustration.

"I told you, don't worry," Trish said. "You and her will be able to leave here sooner than you think. Who knows, if you do bad enough, maybe they'll throw you out with her just to get rid of you."

Ricky smiled at Trish, slightly amused by her comment.

"If only I were that lucky, huh?" he said.

Ricky then opened the door and walked out.

"Just be careful," Trish whispered after he had shut the door.

---

As Lance started to come to, the first thing he noticed was a bright, orange and yellow light to his right. Then everything else began to slowly come to.

"Lance?" a female voice asked.

Lance closed his eyes and tried to concentrate on remembering what had happened before he'd gone to sleep.

"Lance? You awake?" the voice asked again.

Just then, everything came back to Lance. He'd shown Destiny what had happened to him, but then he'd past out from his transformation into a dragonite.

'_Yeah, I'm awake_,' Lance said, using his thoughts to communicate with Destiny.

"You're okay, right?"

'_As okay as I can be_,' Lance answered.

He went to sit up, but suddenly began to feel dizzy and stopped.

Destiny rushed to his side and helped him sit up, propping his back against one of the cave walls.

'_Thanks_,' he said to Destiny.

"No problem," Destiny said as she turned to look back at the fire.

She sat next to Lance and brought her knees to her chin, still staring at the fire in the process.

'_You sure it's safe to have a fire going in here?_' Lance asked Destiny.

"Yeah, I can make it safe. It's easy enough for me when we're this near to the entrance," Destiny answered.

A couple moments went by as they both stared at the fire.

Lance turned his head and looked at Destiny. He had been so afraid that she wouldn't accept what he'd become… Yet now she accepted it so easily…

_I guess that that's just the kind of person she is,_ Lance thought to himself.

Destiny's eyes left the fire and looked up at Lance. He looked at her for one last moment, then turned his gaze back to the fire.

"Lance, why… Why didn't you come straight home?" Destiny asked, concern etched into her voice.

Lance looked back at Destiny. She was staring intently at him.

Lance gave a sigh and looked back at the fire.

'_I suppose that there's not just one reason to why I didn't go back to the cabin_,' he started off saying.'_One was that I was afraid that if I was there with you, you would be in danger. Apparently you were in danger anyway, or else I wouldn't have had to rescue you._'

"Yeah, I'd guessed you were the one who'd saved my rear end from the other dragonite and Daemon, or whoever that other guy was," Destiny commented.

'_Yeah, it wasn't too easy, but I managed to pull it off_,' Lance said.

"Well, what were the other reasons?" Destiny asked, trying to get Lance to continue.

'_At first, I didn't know how I was going to communicate to you that it was me_,' Lance continued. '_After all, you wouldn't have dug through my mind to find out what it was that I wanted to tell you, so that would just have been a nightmare._

'_But when I finally figured out that I could transform back to my normal self, I was ready to head back right away and tell you. Of course, all good things must come to an end, and mine came pretty quickly. I soon figured out that my human form was very much temporary. Transforming, both ways, is also exhausting, so it left me defenseless afterwards. I eventually made it so that I could last a couple hours longer than I originally could. In fact, when I transformed this last time, it was the longest I'd ever waited to transform. I knew, because it was temporary, that I wouldn't be able to hide it if I wanted to, so that made me feel I couldn't go to you yet either. After all, it'd probably have come out at the worst time too._'

"But why would you want to hide it from me?" Destiny asked, sounding somewhat sad that he would wish to conceal something like this.

'_I don't really know. I guess it might have been because I was afraid that you wouldn't accept what I'd become_,' Lance answered, '_or maybe I was too full of pride to want you to learn that something this embarrassing had happened to me._'

Destiny got up and walked in front of Lance. She knelt in front of him and looked into his eyes with a look of pity.

She wrapped her arms around the dragonite's neck and hugged him. He, in return, wrapped his arms around her sides and back.

"Lance," Destiny said in a low voice, "it doesn't matter how much you change on the outside, just as long as you stay you on the inside. That's all I care about. I just want you to be the Lance that I've always known."

They sat there in that embrace for several moments. Neither stirred nor hardly dared do anything but breathe.

"Just know that no matter what happens to you, I'll always be waiting for you. No matter what you think I'll say or do, I'll always be there as long as you haven't totally changed on me. That I can promise you," Destiny finally said.

They finally let go of each other.

'_I just didn't want to hurt you, to disappoint you_.' Lance said as he looked at Destiny.

Destiny looked down, then sat down by him again and sighed.

"It doesn't matter, just as long as you know next time, I'm there for you," Destiny said as she stared at the fire.

Lance looked over at Destiny.

'_Des?_' he asked to get Destiny's attention.

"Yeah?" Destiny asked, looking over at Lance.

'_Thanks_.'

Destiny smiled then turned her head to look back at the fire.

---

"Ah… So that's where you are…" the man said.

The man was strange looking, to say the least. He had blonde hair, small dark irises, and his eyes frowned into a serious look. He also had on a brown shirt and pants. However, the strange things about him was that his skin had a yellow hue, he had a red star on his forehead, and he had long pointed ears, not too unlike a kadabra's.

He had been in a sort of daze-like state, which he had come out of to make his comment.

He turned to a pidgeotto that sat on a nearby rock and was cleaning its feather.

"Come my minion! We must help the main characters! The author wishes it!" the strange man shouted. The pidgeotto looked up and stared at the man like he had lost his mind; which probably wasn't too far off from the truth…

"I am appalled that you would think that!" shouted the man.

The man suddenly stopped and stared at the pidgeotto.

"Sally, you look different…" the man said.

The pidgeotto sweat dropped and shook its head.

"Preparations must be made!" he shouted as he threw his hand up into the air in a fist.

Then, he and the pidgeotto disappeared, being teleported to some unknown destination.

---

Croy sat as his desk, staring at the computer screen.

Things all began to make sense now. The youthful appearance, her mistaking him for being Daemon, and her being psychic… It was all clear.

Now he had another reason to capture her.

A knock came at the door.

"What?" Croy asked gruffly.

"Someone's here to see you sir," a male voice said from the other side of the door.

"Who?" Croy asked in the same tone.

"Well it's—" the man began.

"Oh come on, Hun! It's li'l ol' me!" a female voice rang from the other side.

"I'm busy, come back later," Croy said with a tone of annoyance.

Suddenly the door burst open and Bell walked in with a panicking guard right behind her.

"Chill, Sweetie," she said to the guard, then to Croy said, "You're always busy. This is as good a time as any for me to come and chat."

"Actually, I'm usually not that busy. I just don't like talking to you," Croy said bluntly.

Bell gave a short laugh.

"Oh, Hun, I never thought you had a sense of humor!" she said in the midst of her giggle fit.

"I don't," Croy answered.

Bell stopped in mid-laugh, looked at Croy, and blinked.

"Oh," she simply said.

All the while, the guard stood in a nervous wreck-like state and stared at the two, not sure if he should go back to the door, or if he should do something else.

Croy noticed this and looked at the guard.

"Go back to your post and shut the door," Croy told him.

"Yes, sir!" the guard said before running off to do as he was told, for he knew he was getting off easy when it comes to Croy.

Bell watched as the guard shut the door, then turned to look at Croy. Surprisingly enough, her face was very serious.

"I gave you some info, now you have to tell me what you dug up," Bell said sternly.

"Unfortunately, I haven't succeeded in recovering any more useful information on the girl," Croy said, adding a little bit of a disappointed tone to what he said.

"I don't believe you," Bell said as she walked up to Croy's desk and leered at him.

Croy sighed.

"Hard to hide anything from you," he said, sounding discouraged. "Okay then, I'll tell you what I managed to find."

Bell grabbed a chair and brought it in front of Croy's desk. She sat down and looked at Croy.

"Well, spit it out!" Bell said.

"I looked through some of my 'father's' old files," he began, "and found that she could very well be someone that my father used for his youth enhancing experiments."

"So basically, she could either have an extremely prolonged life, or she could be immortal?" Bell asked.

"I think the term is more so 'eternal youth'," Croy answered in a 'matter-of-fact' sort of way.

Bell smiled and looked at Croy seemingly satisfied with the information he'd given her.

"Did you find anything else?" Bell asked, less seriously.

"Yes, that she could very well be the biggest threat that you or anyone in this facility has ever faced."

Bell's expression went from satisfied to horror filled.

She knew, when Croy said something was dangerous, it was a force to be reckoned with.

"What?" Bell exclaimed.

She quickly got up out of her seat and looked down at Croy.

"Is there anything else?" she asked in a serious tone.

"That's all I've been able to uncover for now," Croy answered.

Bell turned around.

"If you find anything else, report it to me immediately!" she ordered.

Bell marched out the door and closed it swiftly behind herself.

"Oh, I forgot almost something," Croy said in a low voice as soon as he knew she was out of hearing range. "I also found that she is of an immortal race, and was, even before my father got a hold of her. They're better than the average human, and can do things like you wouldn't believe. Fascinating, isn't it?"

He smiled to himself and chuckled.

"Yes, very fascinating indeed," he said as he leaned back in his chair, "_Very_ fascinating."

Destiny awoke slowly to the chill that was in the air. She did her best to curl up into a little ball inside her sleeping bag to keep herself warmer.

She took a deep breath then suddenly realized something.

She sat up and looked around quickly. She hadn't put the fire out last night, and she'd fallen asleep.

She gave a sigh of relief. The fire was out, good.

_Lance must have put it out last night_, she thought to herself.

It wasn't until then, when Lance was nowhere to be seen, that everything seemed to catch up to her.

Lance was turned into some sort of dragonite that could morph back into human form.

Destiny laid back down, this time on her back instead of her side.

As everything began to hit her, she just laid there, in a daze.

_Good Lord_, she thought to herself, _Lance got turned into a dragonite… Lance is a dragonite…_

"Isn't it strange how much time there can be between when a fact is given and when it's realized?" a male voice asked.

"Yeah," Destiny said, absent-mindedly agreeing to the statement.

Suddenly she noticed that the voice was no familiar to her.

She sat up and turned to her right, where the voice had come from.

There squatted a man with a star on his forehead and long, thick, pointed ears. A pidgeotto rested on his forearm, which he held out in front of himself.

"Who—who the world are you?" exclaimed Destiny loudly.

"Julius. I'm the comedic relief. Well, the relief, anyway," answered the man quite simply.

"GET OUT OF HERE!!!" screamed Destiny.

"Sorry, no can do," the man said.

"And why not?" yelled Destiny.

"Because the author doesn't want me to," answered Julius.

Destiny stared at the bizarre man.

"If you keep staring at me like that, your face might end up staying that way," the man said as he pointed at Destiny.

"Are you nuts?!" exclaimed Destiny.

The pidgeotto on Julius's arm closed its eyes and nodded as if say, "Sadly, it's very true. He's absolutely insane."

"I'm not ABSOLUTELY insane," pointed out the man. "Well, okay, maybe just a little."

At that moment a dragonite flew and landed in the entrance of the cave. He stared, puzzled, at the other person inside the cave.

'_Would you mind filling me in?'_ Lance asked as he stared at the group.

Destiny shrugged.

"The only thing more I know than you do is that his name's Julius," Destiny said.

"It is?" the strange man asked looking very surprised, "… Oh yes, it is!"

"… And that he's totally loopy, but I'm guessing you figured that out by now," Destiny said to Lance while not loosing eye contact with Julius.

'_Actually, I meant why he doesn't look like a normal human_,' Lance said, or rather thought, to Destiny, '_but I guess I'll settle for that._'

"Actually, that's a complicated story," Julius said, as if having heard Lance's thoughts, even though they were not meant to be heard by him, "it involves some complicated stuff that has to do with teddy bears, balloons, and a purple marshmallow. Most of which I can't remember…"

The pidgeotto rolled its eyes and hopped off the man's arm and onto the ground. The man still held his arm out as if the bird pokemon was still on it.

Lance had walked further into the cave until he stood next to Destiny. Both stood there and stared at the intruders.

But soon their attention diverted to the pidgeotto, who began to grow larger, but with no light surrounding it, meaning it wasn't evolving. Two bumps began sprouting on its sides and grew longer and longer. Its face began to morph and lose feathers just as a good part of its body was. Its body began to stretch out and its legs grow longer. All this occurred all at once, until the end result gave a loud sigh of effort.

It was a woman. She had wings on her back, large talons as feet, and her hair wasn't really hair, but instead layers of long feather like the ones on the back of a pidgeot's head. She had on a cream colored tank top and pants, feathers appeared in bunches all around her body, and her eyes were fierce like a predator's. She also seemed to have claws instead of fingernails.

"Since Julius over there has decided he'd rather not tell you our story, I guess I should," the woman said, "My name is Sally and, believe it or not, I'm the dork head's girlfriend."

Destiny stared at the woman in awe. Lance, on the other hand, was not quite so stunned.

'_I see_,' he said, getting Destiny's attention, '_they were probably earlier experiments of the same testing that was done on me._'

"What?" Destiny said, turning and looking at Lance with an expression of surprise.

"True, true," Julius said, nodding his head, "we were indeed used for testing. And rubber duckies."

"Is he broken?" asked Destiny.

"Not too sure," answered Sally, "though I'd venture to guess that he was… But that will be all explained in story I'm about to tell you.

"You see," Sally continued, "Julius wasn't always this bizarre. The two of us worked at Team Industry. That was where we first met. He was a goofy guy, and we fell in love. How? I suppose that's a mystery that will never be solved. But we started going out after a couple months and after about a year of dating, we decided to sign up for being used as experiments in a new project. It would alter our DNA, making us a valuable asset to Team Industry. We wanted to get a raise so that we might start a life together. The experiment would make us second stage pokemon and see if we could evolve. They told us that they'd fixed the process so that we could stay either human or pokemon as long as we wanted. They also made it so that the process of morphing wouldn't be very painful.

"But as you might guess, things went a little wrong. We were able to be pokemon,and tranforming was only uncomfortable, but we were only able to morph into these humanoid forms. What's worse is that every time Julius morphed, he would loose a little more of his sanity. The stupid scientists didn't figure that out until he was almost like this.

"They still wanted to continue testing on him though. They even made him morph a couple more times. It was then that I decided we needed to leave. So I got Julius to teleport us out of the facility. It wasn't until that long ago that I began thinking that they might have developed a cure or something by now. So I had Julius search for someone who would be able to help us get into the facility."

"And that's why you came here, right?" Destiny asked.

"I guess so," Sally answered, "But this _is_ Julius, so…"

"I know what I do every now and again," Julius said, looking as though he was ready to pout, "They can help us, if they so choose to accept the injured pineapple."

"Uh, sure, Hun," Sally said giving Julius a strange look.

'_But I don't see how we'd be able to help_,' Lance said to Destiny. '_I really don't want to go back to that cursed facility._'

"Well then you won't have to," Destiny replied, "I will."

'_What?'_ Lance exclaimed.'_Destiny, I can't let you do that! I'd never be able to forgive myself if something bad happened to you!_'

"They might have a cure for you too!" Destiny replied, looking up at Lance's face with a serious expression. "I don't want to pass up an opportunity to change you back!"

'_There's not even really that much of a chance that they have a cure already,_' Lance said.

"But I still want to see if they do…" Destiny said, still looking up at Lance.

"Okay, I'm really only seeing a one sided conversation," Sally said with a puzzled look.

"Oh, that's because Destiny is psychic," Julius said smirking.

Sally stared at Julius with a no nonsense look.

"Well thank you, Julius, but that doesn't help me much," Sally said.

Destiny looked over at Sally and gave a small smile.

"Oh, no, he's talking about me," she said, "My name is Destiny, and I _am_ psychic. This is  
Lance, a friend of mine I've known ever since about the time we'd started our journeys a while back. He was recently kidnapped and used in experiments probably by the same team you used to work for."

"Really now?" Sally asked, tapping her chin. "Well, you two wouldn't happen to be able to break into a high security facility, now would you?"

"Yeah, I could sneak in with some help with planning by Lance here," Destiny answered.

'_Destiny, are you crazy? I'm not going to let you—'_ Lance began to say before Sally interrupted him involuntarily.

"Well, it seems that you can do things right sometimes, Julius," Sally said, seeming surprised.

"I told you," Julius said, crossing his arms, "I do things correctly every now and again with the assistance of my talking pet frogs."

"Frogs?" Sally asked looking at Julius funny, "You know what? Never mind, I don't want to know."

Sally looked back over to Destiny and Lance.

"So, what makes you so qualified to sneak into a secure facility with a little planning from your buddy?" she asked Destiny.

Destiny grinned.

"It's a little secret that you may find out soon enough," she answered.

---

The dragonite looked across the seemingly vast forest from the top of the cliff. He ached inside. He might never be able to look at any other scenery with her ever again.

He was trapped, cursed to never belong anywhere, with anyone. He'd be a slave forever, a servant to this greedy team. All because they held her captive.

She didn't even know what had happened to him. He wouldn't let her. He didn't want her to ever see him like this.

A human, but a dragonite. Yet, at the same time, neither, nor anything.

Could she ever accept that? Could she ever see him as anything other than what he saw himself as?

Even after everything he did for her, she'd, with his luck, leave him without a second thought.

But she never seemed to love him any less whenever he would go to see her in his human form…

That was the point though, wasn't it? Whenever he saw her in his human form.

"Ricky," a voice said over his headset, "I need you to get back in here. I have something I want you to do."

The dragonite sighed.

No, nothing would change until the day that he died. They would always keep her as the string they needed to control their puppet. Or at least until he became "obsolete." But the likelihood of that…

The dragonite stood up.

No, he would never be able to free himself.

---

A beautiful redhead with a pair of thin-rimmed glasses that sat in front of here light blue eyes walked over to a part on the side of a cliff that bumped out of the cliff wall. She wore a skirt that went to her knees, a blouse, and a lab coat.

She took a quick look around and then pushed her index finger against a little ledge. It went into the cliff, revealing a sort of keypad-like thing underneath it.

She pressed a green button that made one of the other buttons pop up to reveal a cotton swab. She took the swab and swiped the inside of her mouth with it, placing it back, cotton way in first. The DNA scanner glowed then made a beeping noise. She looked down at a little black screen that read, "WELCOME BACK DR. TERESA MALT," with green letters.

The doctor chuckled to herself and then watched as the bumped out part of the cliff moved upwards to reveal a dark passageway. She stepped in, then turned around, watching as the door fell back into place. She then turned to the illuminated elevator numbers. She pressed several in a certain order and then waited for something to appear beneath the elevator buttons.

A thing popped out like a CD player. It had vertical slot with small semi-circles on each side of it. She put her index finger in one semi-circle and her thumb in the other. She then turned the slot counter-clockwise so that is was horizontal, took a keycard out of her pocket, and then ran it through the slot. She turned slot back into its vertical position. The elevator gave a jolt and began to move downwards.

Dr. Malt was headed underground.

When she arrived on her floor, she walked into the hallway and turned left. She walked past several different doors, then took a right, walking past two other doors to her right, and three to her left, until she came the door she desired to go through.

She typed a code into the keypad under the door. She took a keycard out of her pocket and ran it through the slot by the doorknob.

She turned the knob and opened the door. She closed the door behind her and looked around. The room was white and full of computers and machines. Most of the machines held test tubes of sorts.

There were only a couple other people that were in the room.

"Hey! Teresa!" a young redheaded woman in the corner shouted to Dr. Malt, "Over here!"

Dr. Malt walked over to the woman.

"Hey Emily," she said with a smile.

"Guess what? I'm almost done with that formula for an antidote the mutation serum," she said in a low voice.

"What? Really?" Teresa replied.

"Yeah, and I figured out one of the people who was going to receive the antidote," she said, nodding.

"Really? Who told you?" Dr. Malt asked.

"Dr. Underwood did. You know, Trish? It's that poor dragonite that Croy's always bossing around," Emily said. "I heard that the reason he was even apart of the experiment was because they have his fiancé under lock and key. The poor guy."

"Wow, that's kind of sad," Teresa said.

"Yeah, which makes it that much more important that I get this thing done," Emily said, turning back to her computer.

"You were always a sucker for that romantic stuff. Well, I'd better get to work, too," Teresa said.

"Okay, I'll talk to you later," Emily said.

Teresa went over to her computer, typed in a username, a few passwords here and there, then got the search engine up.

She typed in a couple names, numbers, and then a couple words. She pressed the SEARCH button, and waited a couple moments.

The screen produced a couple different files. She clicked on one of them.

This was exactly what she'd been looking for. Now, to wait around until—

The door the lab opened and a group of men and women walked in. They were dressed in green outfits and all of them looked around the room.

Teresa quickly exited out of what she'd been looking at.

They apparently found what they'd been looking for almost right away, because a few of them walked over to Teresa.

"Dr. Teresa Malt?" a woman asked.

"Yes…" Dr. Malt replied, nodding slowly.

"Come with us please," she said.

Teresa frowned and stood up.

"Croy wants to see you," the woman said, grabbing Teresa's wrist.

One of the men grabbed her other wrist and she looked around frightened. She felt deep inside she knew exactly what would happen to her.

And she didn't like the feeling.

---

Teresa looked at Croy, who was seated right in front of her. She, too, was seated. However, her wrists were tied together behind the chair.

The two of them were also all alone.

He was looking at a bottle in his hand. It was small and looked like some medicine bottles do, only it was glass and held a liquid inside of it.

"I hardly expected you to show up again so soon Natasha," Croy said.

"What?" Teresa asked, puzzled.

"Natasha, you're playing dumb. I hate it when people do that," Croy said, giving Teresa a cold look.

"What are you talking about?" she asked, baffled.

"Stop acting like you don't know what I'm talking about Natasha," Croy said, with a hint of anger in his voice.

"But I don't!" Teresa responded. "Sir, if this is a factor of my identity, the DNA test—"

"That's the thing though," Croy said. "You know as well as I do that that doesn't matter, because you can even change your DNA. Right, Natasha?"

"Sir, I'm really confused here," Teresa said. "I just got back from vacation and now you keep calling me this Natasha person. I'm starting to think I've entered a parallel universe or something."

"Fine then," Croy, said, as he got up from his chair. "If you want to play it that way, I'll let you go, but only under one condition."

Teresa looked up at Croy as he walked over to her. She began to show signs of panic. She bit her lower lip in an attempt to keep herself calm.

Croy walked in front of Teresa and leaned his back against his desk. He fiddled around with the bottle that was in his right hand.

"You see," he said, looking at the bottle, "Earthons are indestructible, and masters at hiding. They can change shape, and even their DNA structure. They are immortal and there is no way to kill them," he looked into Teresa's eyes, "except for one. My so-called 'father' figured it out. Of course, you already know all of this. In fact, you probably knew as soon as you saw this bottle what it contained; Earthin's Bane."

Teresa's head fell forward; her eyes were shut tight. She knew what was coming.

Croy smiled. His face twisted into an evil grin.

"Totally harmless to people, but death to immortals," Croy continued, "Made for the sole purpose to kill my father's greatest obstacle, but, ironically, what brought him to his own demise. I give you an injection of this; if you live, you're Teresa Malt after all. We wipe your memory of what I've just said, and you go on living your life like this never happened. However,"— Croy's eyes narrowed— "if you begin to scream in anguish and pain, and begin slowly deteriorating, then I've just rid myself of my biggest threat against my authority. Either way, I can't loose.

"But," Croy said, looking back down at the bottle, "if you show me your true face, Natasha, then I just might spare you. After all, we need you for our own purposes."

There was a moment of silence. Teresa knew that she could get out of that rope tied around her wrist, but there was no way to get out of this facility. Not unless they wanted her to get away, and she knew that that would never happen. She only had one option left if she wanted to live.

She lifted her head and looked at Croy.

"I knew you'd co-operate Natasha," Croy said, looking at the girl who sat in front of him.

"I no longer go by that name," said the girl, looking up at Croy with dark green eyes full of determination. A strand of light brown hair fell forward into her face. "My good friend Fate gave me a new one."

"Oh?" Croy said, raising his eyebrows in interest. "And what would it be now?"

---

FLASHBACK***

"I love chicken!

I love liver!

I love pizza!

You deliver!" Julius sang.

"Julius, shut-up" Sally said, glaring at Julius.

Espeon picked her head up and looked at Sally as if to say, "Thank you."

"I love you, Sally," Julius said, leaning his head against her shoulder and looking up at her with a stupid grin plastered on his face.

"And sometimes I wonder why I still love you," Sally said smiling and looking at her crazy, grinning boyfriend.

Julius sat up suddenly and leaned forward, squinting his eyes so that way they looked like they were closed.

"Does this make me look like Brock?" Julius asked.

"Look like who?" Sally asked, completely confused.

"I thought so," Julius said in response, still holding his pose. "There has been a disturbance in the force. We are in a flashback!"

"Uh, sure, Hun," Sally said, rolling her eyes.

Espeon, on the other hand, looked at Julius like he was crazy.

And while those two were having their interesting conversation inside the cave, Lance and Destiny were outside the cave entrance. Lance was in his human form, leaning against the mountainside, while Destiny was sitting down cross-legged and fiddling with some grass. Both were waiting for sunrise, when Destiny would leave to go through with the plan they'd been working on for two whole weeks.

"You remember all the codes and stuff, right?" Lance asked, looking at Destiny.

"Yeah, I remember," Destiny said, continuing to fiddle around with the grass. "We psychics are pretty good at remembering stuff."

"Well, I was just making sure," Lance said.

There was a moment of silence. Both of them stared at the ground in front of themselves.

"You don't have to go," Lance said, looking up at the stars.

"It's too late to turn around now," Destiny replied, still staring at the grass in front of her.

"No, you can still turn back," Lance said, "but once you're in that facility, if you get caught somehow, then it will be too late. But you can always turn back before then."

"We kidnapped that woman, I ran through her mind and grabbed the needed information," Destiny said, looking at a blade of grass that was sitting in her hand, "but most importantly, I promised those two I'd do my best to find their cure."

"But I know that those aren't the only reasons," Lance said, still looking up at the night sky. "You're also doing this because you think they may have _my_ cure ready."

"There's nothing wrong with that," Destiny said, tearing up a couple new blades of grass.

Lance turned his head and looked over at her.

"Yes, there is," he said. "I know that you would put yourself in deliberate danger if it meant getting my cure. I don't want you doing that. If they get you, they'll have both of us. I already know that they'd use you to control me."

"They won't get me," Destiny replied stubbornly.

"How do you know?" Lance asked. "Did you use your powers to find out?"

"No, you know that I hardly ever get visions of the future," Destiny answered.

"Then why are you pretending to know a future that you know no better than I do?" Lance asked in a caring tone.

"Because, if I look at it any other way, if I'm not confident enough, I'm more likely to mess up," Destiny answered. "The reason for that being, I'd be less relaxed, more like I didn't know what I was doing. And in order to accomplish this, I have to look like I do this everyday."

Destiny looked at the clump of grass in her hand. She then gave a sigh and closed her eyes, clutching onto the clump of grass.

"Des, if anything happens to you, you know that I'll feel that I'm the one to blame," Lance said, looking at Destiny. "Please be careful. You mean too much to me."

Destiny looked up at Lance for the first time during their conversation.

"Lance…" Destiny started, but left off, not too sure about what to say.

For a moment the two of them spoke nothing. The only sounds were that of night's and some senseless jabbering between Julius and Sally from inside the cave.

"Lance, I'll be okay," Destiny said, before looking at the ground in front of her. "You don't have to worry about me. After all, I may look young, but you know as well as I do, that I'm no average 16 year-old girl."

Destiny stood up, brushed herself off, and then walked over to face Lance. She leaned against his chest and let him hold her close with his arms around her.

"I may not know what'll happen, but I can promise you that everything will all work out fine on the end," she said.

Lance said nothing, but looked ahead to western horizon. Fate had thrown another conflict at them. Did she find it funny to do this to them?

Or did she have another reason for all their turmoil?

Lance and Destiny both closed their eyes, just letting this moment last.

Then, after a little while, Lance opened his eyes and looked ahead. The sky ahead was lit up with the morning light. Even the part of the sky that was always the last to see the light coming or going, was touched by the golden morning sunlight.

"It's time for you to go," Lance said in a low voice.

Destiny opened her eyes and looked up at the sky.

"I guess that time won't wait for even me," Destiny said, listening to Lance's heartbeat for a couple more seconds.

She then gave a sigh and then pushed away from Lance, so that she stood in front of him. She took off her pokeballs and handed them to Lance.

"Take care of them," she said as he took it from her.

"You have the keycard, right?" Lance asked.

Destiny took it out of her coat pocket.

"Yep, right here," she said, smiling.

Lance smiled back, but it was more so a smile of satisfaction, than that of happiness.

Destiny stuck the keycard back in her pocket, turned around, and stepped a few feet away. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. A flash of a silver line, which ran horizontally, trickled down her body.

Dr. Teresa Malt now stood in a white lab coat a few feet away from Lance.

"Be careful Destiny," Lance said.

"Lance, you worry too much," the redheaded woman said in Dr. Malt's voice.

The woman looked at Lance and smiled. She then stooped down and picked up a belt that had a few pokeballs on it.

"I'll be fine, you'll see," she said.

With that she clipped the belt around her waist, took off one of the pokeballs.

"Besides, Dr. Malt's pokemon will protect me," the woman said with a grin.

With that, she threw the pokeball into the air. A red light shot out of the pokeball, revealing the form of a Kirlia.

"All right Kirlia, teleport us to just outside the anti-teleportation barrier," the woman said.

"Kirlia!" the Kirlia shouted with a nod.

With that, the two were gone in a flash, leaving Lance leaning his back against the mountainside.

He crossed his arms and then closed his eyes.

If anything happened to her, he'd never forgive himself. Especially since the biggest reason she was doing this was for him.

Lance opened his eyes and looked up. There was hardly a cloud in the sky.

Lance stood up straight and sighed. He'd been in his human form for an hour, which was long enough for now.

END FLASHBACK***

---

It was around one O'clock in the afternoon. Not long enough to worry quite yet. But he still wished she would get back quickly.

"You seem tense," Sally said as she sat down by Lance.

He turned and looked at her, then turned his head back to the entrance.

"You know, I _can_ understand pokemon language," Sally said. "Kinda comes with the pokemon part of the brain."

The dragonite stayed quiet.

"Fine, be that way," Sally responded. "It's not like I wanted to have a sane conversation anyway."

Sally got up and turned around.

"[Wait]," Lance said in pokemon.

"Well, well," Sally said, sitting back down by Lance, "you can speak after all."

"[Please don't mock me]," Lance said, glaring at Sally.

"Sorry, but I'm a natural smart alek," Sally replied. "Sometimes words just fly out of my mouth and I hardly even notice."

Lance gave her a disbelieving look.

"Hey, it was worth a shot," Sally said with a grin. "So, whatcha thinking about?"

"[I'm just worried about Destiny, that's all]," Lance answered. "[She could've used the sudden illness excuse and been well out of there by now.]"

"And I'm still more concerned about if she even got in," Sally said. "I mean, how on earth could you have possibly gotten past the DNA swabbing? They have a camera that watches the entrance 24/7, so it's not like you could've used anything pre-done."

"[I told you before, it's a trade secret]," Lance replied.

"Sure," Sally said, raising an eyebrow. "How did you two meet anyway?"

"[I'd been training for about a year and had just won my eighth gym badge]," Lance said. "[when I just sort of found her. She was knocked out cold and her buddy was kind of panicking. Poor guy had no idea what to do.]"

"Really now?" Sally said. "Well that's an interesting story. And you guys were friends after that?"

"[Well, it was kind of weird, because she was always kind of staring at me funny]," Lance said. "[And then, when I finally asked her why she was always staring at me like that, she bugged out and wouldn't tell me. And I have _still_ yet to figure it out.]"

"She probably had a crush on you," Sally said.

"[I don't know]," Lance said. "[If I didn't know her that well, I might agree with you. But Destiny's a kind of unique character. She doesn't even believe in love at first sight. She'd never fall for a guy unless she knew their personality first.]"

"Speaking of that sort of thing, has she had any other boyfriends besides you?" Sally asked.

"[What]?" Lance responded, looking at Sally wide-eyed. "[No, you have it all wrong, I'm not her boyfriend! Well, not officially, but it's… Do you take pride in putting people in awkward positions like this]?"

"Maybe," Sally said, grinning. "So you guys have been together since you were about eleven? And then what about her little buddy? What happened to him?"

"[Well, there was a time when we were separated for a long while]," Lance said, "[but as you can tell, we managed to find each other again. And as for Destiny's friend, he had to leave. I haven't seen him since then.]"

"Hmm… Hey, out of curiosity, how old are you?" Sally asked.

"[You sure do have a lot of questions]," Lance commented, "[but of all the questions you could've asked, that's one that I can't answer]."

"Um, okay then," Sally replied.

"I may now interrupt because they are done talking about things that the audience may have wanted to know!" Julius shouted from behind them.

"And if you're wondering why I haven't killed him yet, not even I know that," Sally said, grinding her teeth and fluffing up the feathers on her wings.

"You see, before the flashback, Destiny got caught. At least, I think it is Destiny, especially after seeing the flashback. Anyway, I'm thinking that she's probably in big trouble right now, though I'd have to wait to see," Julius said.

"[What]?" Lance responded, turning to look at Sally with a puzzled expression.

"Probably another one of his mindless rants," Sally answered, "but from the sound of what he said, it kinda sounds like Destiny's in trouble."

"[What]?" Lance exclaimed this time, standing up. "[We have to get in there and save her! Who knows what they've done to her by now]?"

"Calm down, I'm sure that she's not too bad off," Sally said raising her hands in a calming gesture, "You aren't thinking clearly, so I'll say this to get you on a more rational thought process. There are several doors to the facility, each are well-hidden, and under 24/7 surveillance. In order to get into one of those doors, you need to be one of the people assigned to that door. After that you have to put your index finger in the correct area. You're fingerprint has to match your face. After that, a keypad of a sort is revealed, there can be a different range of buttons. You have to press the right button or buttons to get one of the other buttons to pop up. This reveals a one-sided cotton swab. You have to get some of your spit on it, preferably by swiping the inside of your mouth. You must then stick that swab in cotton headfirst so that way it can read the DNA from your mucus. After a DNA match is confirmed, an elevator door will open.

"And all of that up until now is just to get inside the elevator. After that, you have to type in an eight-digit identification number then a six-digit password in the elevator numbers. You then have to turn a slot that appears under the numbers horizontally, turning it counter-clockwise for some and clockwise for others. Then, you have to have a key card that matches your entire identity up to that point that you slip through the slot. You then turn it vertical again, either going counter-clockwise for some and clockwise for others.

"After that, you go to whatever floor your workplace is assigned to, from a range of ten stories underground to forty-five," Sally said, finishing up, "Now how do you expect to rescue her? Knock and ask nicely?"

"[Well I can't just wait here]!" Lance shouted.

"There will be no need, for you see, there is a Smurf on the horizon," Julius said, pointing to outside the cave entrance.

Lance and Sally looked to see what Julius was talking about, if he was even talking about anything at all.

Amazingly enough, Julius was indeed pointing out something that was there.

"[What is it]?" Lance asked.

"It's a dragonite," Sally answered.

"[What? How could you tell]?" Lance asked her.

"My eyes are as sharp as a pidgeotto's," Sally answered looking at Lance and smirking. "Comes with the job."

She looked up back at the flying dragonite.

"It's coming pretty fast too," Sally continued saying. "Should be here soon."

Lance glared at the dragonite on the horizon.

"What do you suppose it's doing way out—?" Sally began to ask. However, she was unable to finishing inquiring.

Lance had leapt into the air and began to jet towards the other dragonite's direction, leaving behind a gust of wind.

He knew who it was. He knew why that dragonite was here.

And he wasn't going to wait around for that news either.

Within a minute and a half the two dragonites were staring each other down in midair.

"[What do you think you're doing here]?" Lance asked angrily.

"[I'm just delivering a message]," the other dragonite said, "[But I have an idea you already know what it is]."

"[You let her go]!" Lance demanded.

"[You must show up by this time tomorrow at the west side of the mountain facility, or else your friend is going to get her taste of Earthin's Bane]," the other dragonite said. "[Negotiations will take place there.]"

With that, the dragonite turned and began to fly off in the opposite direction.

"[Not so fast]," Lance said, giving a quick beat to his wings and springing forward.

With that he disappeared in a flash and came crashing down on the opposing dragonite. As the two began to fall to the earth the other dragonite's hand began to glow. He thrust it on Lance, knocking him off and both straightened back up.

"[I already told you, I'm just a messenger]," the other dragonite said. "[If you want to take it out on anyone, take it out on Croy!]

"[Croy]?" Lance asked.

"[You'll meet him again soon enough]," the other dragonite said turning and flying off for the last time.

Lance just hovered there in midair, fists clenched tight, as he watched the other dragonite fly away.

"[Destiny]…" Lance said softly, bowing his head down.

"What did he want?" Sally's voice asked from behind Lance.

Lance looked over his shoulder.

Sally hovered behind him, her face full of pity, for she had a feeling she knew already.

"[They have her]," he said weakly. "[They have Destiny.]"

---


	2. Part 2

[Author's Note: Sorry I took so long to update. The real world can be too complicated to figure out sometimes. I'm always so busy that I don't have time to properly prepare each part of the story. (There should end up being _about_ five parts, by the way.) I have to have the time to proofread each part over, and then I have to add the dashes between each little section. I also have to remember to format certain things differently, and blah, blah, blah.

All that said, if we're lucky the computer should be open long enough for me to put up Part 3 by the end of next week. If we're REALLY lucky, Part 4 will be up by the end of the week as well. (_If_ we're REALLY lucky.)

As for Part 2, this is where you learn some strange and interesting things about each character: mostly the reason why you don't like Bell. (Come on, we all know that you really hate that chick deep down inside.)

Oh, and reviews are greatly appreciated. Thank you!

Lights, camera, _action_!]

---

_Experiment_

Part 2

---

Destiny looked around her strange holding cell. It looked like a beautiful part of a forest. Berry trees, fruit trees, exotic trees, common trees… There were so many different kinds of foliage; it almost didn't feel like a prison.

But that's what it was: a giant, big, beautiful dungeon.

Destiny looked at her wrists. The same strange electronic device that locked around her wrist also wrapped around her neck and ankles.

These little devices had many purposes, including keeping track of her and disabling her psychic powers. Of course, that wasn't really all that necessary, since the facility was already surrounded by an anti-psychic shield that was encased by an anti-teleportation a good ways outside of that.

_I'm never getting out of here, am I?_ Destiny thought.

She sighed and looked up. The sky was replaced by what looked like it could be a giant, concave roof that had a white, opaque like quality to it. Every square inch of it gave off a nice cool, yet warm, glow.

Destiny hugged her knees closer.

"Hey, you must be new here," a female voice said behind Destiny.

Destiny turned and looked behind her.

A young woman stood there. She had blonde hair that reached halfway down her back. She had on the same light blue pants and T-shirt that Destiny wore. Her eyes were light green and she seemed to be pretty tall as well.

She came and sat down next to Destiny.

"My name's Anne," the young woman said. "What's yours?"

"Destiny," Destiny answered, looking ahead with a sort of distant gaze.

"So, what loved one do they have you here for?" Anne asked.

"The only one that I have left," Destiny answered. "My only friend left, Lance. They want him to work for them because they used him for one of their stupid experiments. He managed to get away at first, but now that I'm here…"

Destiny squeezed her eyes shut.

"It's all my fault I was captured, too," Destiny continued. "If I hadn't been so stupid…"

"There, there," Anne said, putting her hand on Destiny's shoulder. "It's going to be okay, you'll see. Everything's going to be fine."

Destiny took a deep, unsteady breath and then opened her eyes, looking at Anne.

"Thank you," Destiny said.

"No problem," Anne said.

"What about you? Why do they have you here?" Destiny asked.

"Me? They wanted my fiancé for something," Anne answered, "so I'm stuck here until he finishes whatever it is they need."

"Oh, that really stinks," Destiny said.

"Yeah, but he keeps promising me that when we get out of here the first thing we're doing is getting married," Anne said. "The only thing I'm ever afraid of, when it comes to that, is that he might not be the same person. Even when I get to talk to him as little as I do he seems so different."

Anne laughed.

"Look at me," she said. "We're total strangers and I'm already telling you all this."

"Sometimes, if a stranger seems trustworthy, than they might actually be easier to talk to than someone you know," Destiny responded.

"Yeah, you're right," Anne said smiling.

"But if you're worried about whether or not your fiancé is going to be the same person, I can give you a little advise on that," Destiny said, looking at Anne.

"Sure," Anne said, giving a nod.

"Everything changes over time," Destiny began. "Some changes are more drastic than others. In a relationship, you need to look past those changes, and work on the bonds. The reason for that being is that you should never take any promise lightly. Once you agree to the wedding vows, when it says, 'until death do you part,' that's what it means. If you can always look around what's changed, and maybe concentrate more on being the other's spouse, you should have a good marriage, at the least."

Anne looked up, seeming to reflect on that.

"Wow, those are some real good points," Anne finally said after a moment. "Exactly how old are you?"

"However old you believe I am," Destiny answered, "because, in all honesty, age doesn't matter, only what you can do."

"Well, looking at you, if I just went off that, I'd have to say you're pretty smart for your age," Anne said. "But the way you talk kind of reminds me of this older woman I used to know when I was a kid."

"Really now?" Destiny asked.

"Yeah, she was our neighbor back when I was a little girl," Anne said, "She died a just few months before I started my pokemon journey. When I was at her funeral, I remember thinking about how much wiser she seemed than everyone else did. I also remember recalling what she'd said about death. How it was nothing but a sound sleep that no one but God could wake us up from when He comes again. At that moment, during the funeral, I recalled so many things that's she'd told me. And as I looked at her dead face, I saw something that I'd never seen, and have yet to see again, in any dead person's face. I saw that she had died with peace in her heart.

"And until just now, I'd never met another person I'd even believed might have the slightest change of dying with that same sort of peace," she said, finishing up.

Destiny smiled and gave a small, humored, laughed.

"No, I highly doubt that," she said looking off into the distance. "I highly doubt that I'll die with peace in my heart."

---

Bell scooped up the pile of paperwork that sat on her desk. She thumbed through it, took out a few papers, and then through the rest of the papers in the thrash.

"You'd think they'd learn by now that I have a short attention span when it comes to boring junk like that," she said, plopping down on the chair at her desk.

She crossed her legs and looked at the papers in her hands. She took off a pen from her desk and began to chew on bottom of it while reading the paper.

"You've got to be kidding me," she said crumpling up the first paper and throwing in the trashcan.

Just then the phone on Bell's desk began. Bell uncrossed her legs and leaned forward. She pressed a button on that was on it.

"Ma'am? Croy just asked me to call you. He said he had something very important to tell you," a female voice said over the speaker.

"Thank you, Candy," Bell answered back.

Bell pressed another button and hung up the phone.

She then stood up and left her office room. She walked down the hall to an elevator and pressed the down button. Within a few seconds the elevator door opened and Bell stepped in. She pressed three different elevator buttons, waited until the elevator started up, then pressed five more.

After about a half a minute, the elevator stopped and Bell pressed four more buttons. The doors opened and Bell walked passed several doors, then turned to her left and walked down to a door at the end of the hallway that had a guard at it.

"I'm here to see Croy," Bell said to the guard.

"Sir, there's someone here to see you," the guard said in a loud voice.

"If it's Bell, then let her in," said the muffled voice of Croy.

The guard opened the door and Bell walked by him, giving him a wink.

"Thanks, Hun," she said in sweet voice.

The guard closed the door and Bell walked forward, sitting down in the seat in front of Croy's desk, where Croy was sitting.

"So, my dear sweet Croy, what news do you have for li'l ol' me?" Bell asked.

"What would you say, if I said, that I'd caught the experiment's girlfriend?" Croy asked.

Bell laughed and then smiled evilly.

"I'd say that I'd like to 'talk' to this girl," Bell replied, smirking sinisterly.

---

Destiny watched as some stantler grazed by the lake while she sat up in one of the trees in the habitat.

Anne had introduced Destiny to several more people that lived in the dungeon as well. A couple of them, such as this guy named Philip, were really kind of loners. They just looked at her and then walked off without so much as a "Hello."

But that aside, everyone else seemed to be pretty nice.

"Hey, Destiny, how's it hanging there?" a guy asked.

He had short brown hair and light brown eyes. He was tall, and had an athletic build. He was a very handsome young man who seemed to always be smiling.

"Did anyone ever tell you that you have a corny sense of humor?" Destiny asked, grinning.

"I wish I had a dollar for every time someone did," he answered, grinning as well.

Destiny hopped down from the branch that she had perched herself on.

"They sure do have a lot of stuff here," Destiny said, looking around. "It's almost more of a nature reserve than a stinking prison."

"Except nature reserves don't have ceilings," Mack said, looking up, giving a half-smile.

"Every world has a roof," Destiny said, looking at Mack. "It's just higher than any of the others."

"Really now?" Mack replied, giving a lop-sided grin. "I don't suppose that you would be speaking metaphorically?"

"Have we ever been able to reach any other world by anything man-made?" Destiny asked Mack, giving him a serious look.

"No, I don't think that we have," he replied, scratching the back of his head, "at least, not that I know of."

"Than I suppose that you have your answer," Destiny said, giving a smile.

"Um, I'm a bit slow," replied Mack, "so could you please clarify what-"

A booming voice that seemed to fill the entire dungeon cut off what Mack was saying.

"Will Destiny please report to the entrance please?" it said. "Will Destiny please report to the entrance please?"

"Wow, I'll bet at least one person somewhere in this facility is laughing right now," Mack said smirking.

Destiny rolled her eyes.

"Actually, Mack, I think that you're the only one that has that kind of a sense of humor," Destiny said, smiling and turning around to walk to the entrance.

"Wait," Mack said, before Destiny could walk off, "I just thought that I should give you a warning. Some people that come here, when they leave, they either don't come back, or, when they do come back, they… They say that weird things were done to them. I have no idea what they have in store for you, but it might not be pretty."

Destiny looked over her shoulder and smiled.

"No need to worry," she replied. "I've faced stranger things, no matter what they have in stall for me."

With that she walked away to the entrance of the dungeon.

"Anne was right," Mack said to himself, crossing his arms and grinning, "that girl, she's definitely older than she looks."

---

"Go fish! Go fish!" Julius shouted poking one of the rocks on the cavern ground.

"Knock it off Julius, this is real serious!" Sally said, yelling at her half-witted boyfriend.

Julius gave a salute.

"Aye, aye, Cap'n!" he replied.

Sally clenched her fists so hard, that they began to shake.

"You idiot, don't you know when to zip it!?" she shouted.

Julius held his salute, then tipped to his left so that he landed in the same position he'd been standing in.

"Oh, why do I even bother?" Sally asked, turning around.

She walked out of the cave, leaving Julius, grinning, in the same pose.

She looked around, attempting to locate Lance. After a moment of not being able to do so, she transformed into a pideotto and flew above, into the sky.

After a few minutes, she lost altitude and landed in a tree that was near an opening in the forest. There, in the clearing sat Lance, as a dragonite, and Espeon.

"[You know Espeon, I feel real stupid]," Lance said, looking at the espeon. "[I knew that if she went, she'd get caught,but she refused to listen to me. If I'd've thought about how Daemon was there, I could've told her that, and then she might not have… Oh, who am I kidding? Even if Destiny knew that she'd get caught, she would've tried anyway.]"

The espeon looked at Lance with a sad expression.

"[You know, I wish that she'd never have taken that vow to never shift through anyone's mind unless it was necessary to save a life or keep a promise. Maybe she might not have gotten caught then]," Lance said. "[But… I don't know. I guess the only thing to do know is just turn myself over to be a slave to those slimy scum.]"

"We got you two into this mess, and we'll help get you two out," Sally said, coming out into the clearing.

Apparently she'd been transforming because she was now in her humanoid form.

"[Please, what could you guys do]?" Lance asked, sounding doubtful.

Sally gave a smirk that said she knew more than she had originally let on.

"Who said that you guys were the only ones with a few tricks?" she asked.

---

Bell walked into the room, smiling in a mischievous sort of way. It was full of gadgets and machines of all sorts. Most of the machine's purposes were unknown, which is how it should be kept.

"Well, well," Bell said, "It's about time we met. My name's Bell, and I'll be accompanying you today, Destiny."

Destiny was in a pod-like structure. It had a clear glass, concave door on it so that people were able to see her. She was held in place by restraints that went around her wrists, ankles, waist, and forehead. She looked to be peacefully asleep.

"Well, let's take a peek at what your mind remembers, shall we?" Bell asked smiling at the sleeping Destiny.

She walked over to a machine that was near the pod and pressed a couple buttons.

Destiny suddenly began to twist in agony, her peaceful sleep disturbed.

Bell looked up at a large screen that was in front of her. The screen looked glitched up and the picture was cluttered.

Bell turned a couple different knobs back and forth, with no improvement of the screen. Bell sighed and shrugged.

"Looks like you have a good guard on your secret, little memories," she said. "You see, this machine is supposed to play out your memories like a movie, but it just doesn't seem to be working with you.

"It's worked perfectly on so many other people," she continued, "it's surprising it doesn't work on you. I don't know, maybe I'm not giving it the right touch."

She then flicked on a couple other switches that were on the board. Destiny screamed in pain and tried to toss herself back and forth, but was unable to because of the restraints.

However, the screen began to clear up, and soon a picture appeared clearly on it.

"Well, well," Bell said, grabbing a nearby chair, "looks like I'm finely going to see what goes on in your head."

Bell sat down and crossed both her legs and her arms. She leaned back, smiled, and waited for the memories to unfold on the screen.

-

"Wait, so as long as you're with me," the young Destiny said, "I can wish for anything and I'll get it?"

"That's right," said the young man with blonde hair with a nod. "So, what's your first wish?"

"I wanna go to the pokemon world!" Destiny shouted in glee.

"As you wish," the young man replied with a smile.

He gave a wave of his hand and suddenly everything around them turned white, and then everything disappeared into a black void.

"You okay?" a voice asked.

Destiny opened her eyes and looked at where the voice came from. It was a young man with red, spiked hair.

Destiny sat up and looked at the boy. He must have been about eleven. He had a nice smile, too.

"Wait, where'd Zack go?" she asked.

"I'm right here!" Zack's voice said.

Destiny looked behind her and saw Zack standing there grinning.

Destiny smiled at Zack, then looked back at the boy.

"My name's Natasha," she said, "What's yours?"

"My name's Lance," the boy said, "It's a pleasure to meet you!"

Destiny suddenly blushed and looked away. Lance gave her a puzzled look, and looked questionably at Zack to see if he knew the answer. Zack just shrugged back in reply.

Later that day, during dinner, Zack sat next to Natasha.

"Hey, why are you so shy around this guy all of a sudden?" he asked.

"Well, it's a kind of stupid reason, really," Natasha answered, whispering, for fear the Lance, who'd joined them for dinner would hear. "See, in my world, pokemon aren't real, right? Well in the game, anime, and manga series, there's a red-haired champion named Lance, and, well, I've always kind of had a crush on him…"

Zack laughed.

"Well that's kind of silly," he said.

Lance looked up at the two of them with a puzzled expression. Natasha just blushed and looked down.

"Don't worry," Zack said in a whisper, giving Natasha a wink, "you're secret's safe with me!"

"Thanks," Natasha replied, looking up and smiling at Zack.

-

Bell got up and turned a knob, then sat back down.

"So, you're an alien? Interesting," Bell said. "Now let's see what other secrets you hold…"

-

"Natasha, look out!" Lance shouted.

"I got it!" she shouted back.

She jumped out of the way of the creature's giant arm. She spun her double-sword around in circles, causing fire to come out of its axis and burn the creature's arm.

"AAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!" the creature screamed.

It was enormous, ugly, and had come to defeat Zack and undo the wishes Zack had granted, including bringing Natasha, Destiny, as she would later be called, to this world.

"Go! Dragonair!" Lance shouted, sending out a pokeball.

The elegant, serpent-like, blue dragon appeared in a flash of red light.

"Use a dragon rage!" Lance ordered.

The pokemon shot a great yellow beam from its mouth, hitting the strange ugly creature dead on.

"Alright!" Lance shouted.

The creature turned and looked at Lance with an evil glare.

"I must defeat the wish bringer!" the creature said.

"Not while I'm still alive!" Natasha said jumping up onto the creature. She brought down one of the blades on her double-sword full power and cut through the creature's thick hide.

She then summoned first the powers of electricity. The creature screamed in pain.

"You don't like that, huh?" she said, "Well let me numb that a little for you…"

She then summoned the power of ice through her elemental double-sword and froze the creature, from the inside out.

Natasha looked to her side and smiled. Zack looked up and struggled to lift up his arm. He gave her a thumbs-up, and then passed out.

Natasha, drained of energy, let go of the double-sword, which vanished as she fell off the dead and frozen monster's back.

Lance ran over and caught her before she could hit the ground.

"So, you're really from another planet, and had just wished your way here then, huh?" Lance asked her smiling.

Natasha just smiled and nodded. She then closed her eyes and everything just went blank.

When Natasha woke up, Zack was no where to be seen.

"A bunch of wish bringers showed up and brought him back home," Lance answered Natasha's query as to where he was, "They said that you didn't need anymore wishes granted."

"Oh, well, I would've at least liked to say good-bye to him," Natasha replied.

"I'm sure he would have too, Natasha," Lance replied, "I'm sure he would have, too."

-

Bell got up and changed the dial again.

"That was interesting, but not very informative," Bell said. "I need dirt here, people."

She sat down and looked back up at the screen again.

-

Natasha opened her eyes. She was lying down on a pretty comfortable bed, but everything seemed so fuzzy. She blinked to clear up her vision, but it did nothing for how unclear her mind was.

"It's good to see you're finely awake, Natasha," a voice to the side of her said.

Natasha turned her head to see who was talking. Her eyes grew wide and she sat up suddenly. There stood her friend that she'd known for years, but he looked different.

"Lance?!" she exclaimed, "You look—uh…"

"Like a grown man?" Lance said, finishing her sentence, "Yeah that usually goes with being twenty-two."

"But, that's not right, you're only…" Natasha tried to say, but couldn't finish.

"The last time you saw me, I was seventeen," Lance said. "You were kidnapped and put into a cryogenic sleep. There's a team out there who's been experimenting with living humans and pokemon. It's been in illegal activity for some time. Only problem is, we can't prove it's them."

"I don't understand," Natasha said, grabbing hold of her blankets tightly. "What's going on? What's happened?"

"You don't look a day older than you did when you were kidnapped," Lance said. "So I guess that means your sleep went well. However, no one else's seems to have gone as well."

"That's not the answer I was looking for," Natasha said looking at Lance intensely, "What's happened? What's been going on since I was hidden away from the world?"

Lance looked at Natasha and then sighed. He pulled a chair close to her bed, sat down in it, and looked at her with a serious expression.

"A lot has happened since you were kidnapped," he answered, "but the biggest thing would probably be that I'm now the Johto League champion."

Natasha looked down and smiled quietly.

"I've always known that that was something you'd always wanted," she said. "I just wish I could've been there to see you become champion."

"Natasha…" Lance began to say, looking at her with pity.

-

"Boring!" Bell said, turning the knob, "Give me some dirt! Dirt, not all this lame junk, dirt!"

She sat back down and looked annoyingly at the screen.

-

"So you're the leader of the team who's been doing all those illegal experiments, Daemon," Lance said, looking at a man who had blue hair. "What do you want with Natasha?"

"I wanted to study her," Daemon answered. "She's a fine little specimen. An Earthon, if I remember correctly."

"But that can't be," Natasha said, as she hid behind Lance. "I made up Earthons, and I never wished to be one."

"But that's where you're wrong," Daemon replied, grinning. "See, you had asked for your wish bringer to make it so you were psychic, and he granted that request right off. However, not all wishes are verbally announced. Some are granted without your knowledge, and even without the wish maker's knowledge. Your wish to be an Earthon was there for so long, it used your wish bringer's power to grant itself. And who knows how many other wishes were granted that way as well?

"To put it simply, I want ultimate power and immortality, and her DNA holds both!" Daemon said, finishing up. "Now, fire the guns at them!"

Guns suddenly appeared everywhere along the facility's walls, and all of them were pointed at both Natasha and Lance. The men that where with Daemon aimed at them as well.

"Fire!" Daemon shouted.

All the guns went off at almost the same time, creating a deafening roar for what seemed like forever.

"Cease fire!" commanded Daemon.

When the smoke from the guns cleared up, Daemon didn't get to see the dead Lance he'd wanted to see.

Instead, he saw what looked like a dome of small iron balls. They then all fell to the floor with a small _chink_ noise each, making it sound like a waterfall when symphonized together.

And there was also someone else who was standing, unlike the other two. Lance had instinctively gone to protect Natasha by throwing himself over her, while she had just huddled and tried to protect her head of her own instincts.

But the third person was standing perfectly still. She faced Lance and Natasha and had a calm look on her face as she stood in front of them, between them and Daemon and his men.

She had light brown hair and olive-green eyes. She looked, actually, to be about fourteen and not too unlike Natasha.

"Who do you think you are?" shouted Daemon to the strange woman.

She looked over her shoulder at Daemon.

"My name, is Fate," she answered smiling. She looked back, down at Natasha and Lance.

"But you know who I am, don't you?" she asked Natasha.

Natasha answered with a nod. She held tight to Lance's arm.

But suddenly, she found herself in an area that was completely white. Natasha blinked to let her eyes get used to the light. Suddenly, she noticed that she was no longer holding onto Lance, or even in sight of him or anyone else, except, for Fate. She was standing in basically nothingness.

"I have a deal for you," Fate said, looking down at Natasha, "I'll get you out of Daemon's playpen, but you have to search for how to control your Earthon given powers. Deal?"

She held out her hand to Natasha.

Natasha looked at it a moment, then gave a look of determination and grasped hold of it.

"Deal," Natasha replied.

"Good," Fate replied, "And from here on out, I don't want you going by Natasha. Your new name will be… Destiny."

Natasha blinked, and found that she was once again holding onto Lance's arm. Her surroundings were now that of a house's.

"We're out," Lance said, as if he really almost didn't believe it. "Natasha we're—."

"My name's Destiny," Destiny said, cutting Lance off, "From now on, I want everyone to call me Destiny."

Lance looked at his friend and blinked, taken off-guard. She let go of his arm and stood up.

"Fate wanted everyone to call me that from now on," Destiny explained. "She also wanted me to find out how to control my Earthon powers, in return for getting us out of Daemon's facility."

"So, I guess that means we're going to go on another adventure together than, huh?" Lance said, looking up at Destiny and smiling.

"No," Destiny answered, "I'm going on my own this time."

"What?" Lance said in surprise, "But—."

"You still have your duties and obligations as Johto League champion," Destiny said, cutting off Lance, yet again.

"So what? I'll—" Lance said, trying to argue his side.

"No!" Destiny shouted. "I have to do this on my own, and I don't want you risking your life for me when you really don't need to."

With that, Destiny marched off and left Lance alone so that he couldn't argue any more.

"Natasha…" she heard him say, as she marched off, leaving him all alone.

-

"Jeez," Bell said, "You think that they'd get along all the time. At least I found out something."

Bell turned the knob once again. She then sat down and yawned.

"One more and I think I'll call it a day for Miss Identity Crisis here."

-

Destiny looked through the kitchen window at the slightly older looking Lance. Now, in his late-thirties, he'd finely been beaten, and his place taken as champion.

Destiny sighed and then teleported behind Lance. He was drinking some coffee and doing not much else other than staring off into space, probably thinking about some day when he felt his life meant more.

"Boo," Destiny said.

Lance stiffened up and then jumped out of his chair, turning around to see who was there.

When he saw Destiny, his eyes widened with surprise and then looked serious once more.

"What are you doing here?" he asked.

"Just thought I'd drop by and say hello, that's all," Destiny answered. "Oh, and offer you eternal youth, if you were interested."

"You hardly look a year older…" Lance said, looking at Destiny.

"It's an Earthon trick," Destiny replied, "I can look like whoever I want, at whatever age I want."

"But that's—" Lance started to say.

"Not impossible for an Earthon," Destiny said, finishing his sentence. "So, are you going to come with me and gain eternal youth, or stay and die a lonely man?"

"Wait," Lance said, holding up his hands. "You leave for over ten years, then expect me to leave my life here to join you doing—whatever—just because you suddenly show back up?"

"Lance," Destiny said, putting her hands on her hips, "don't lie to me and say you have a life here. Your only life was being the Johto champion, and now that's gone. You don't have much of a family, and you have very few friends, if any at all."

Lance looked to the side.

"It's true," he said, "staying here would be no more different for me than if I went with you. But I have to wonder—."

Destiny grabbed Lance's hands and looked him in the eyes.

"Look, I don't care," Destiny said. "You're the only person who I've got left. I left years ago because I had to. I had to find a way to control the powers I had, but couldn't unless I went alone. I was always lonely, I always felt like… Like part of me was lost. I'd missed you. You were the person I'd missed most…"

"Destiny… I can't come with you. I'm getting older, and you're…" Lance replied, "You're always going to be young. I wouldn't want you to have to bury me…"

"I won't have to," Destiny said. "Weren't you listening? I can make you young again if you just come with me."

"I'll come with you then," Lance said with a nod after a moment, "but exactly how am I going to become younger?"

"Like this," Destiny answered.

She then leaned forward and kissed Lance. As soon as she did, his youth began to return to him. He looked and felt as he had in the prime of his age.

Destiny leaned away from Lance and broke the kiss.

"I've given you some youth," she said. "Since I'm immortal, I have an infinite amount, so I can always give you more."

Lance, however, was still in a bit of a shock over Destiny's action to say anything.

"Hey! Let me show you were we're going to live now!" Destiny said excitedly. "It's a cute little cabin near a lake shore and—."

-

Bell turned off the machine and sighed.

"Well, you've lived an interestin' life, now haven't cha?" she asked Destiny, who looked to be in a terrible condition. She was sweating badly and seemed to be exhausted.

Bell pressed another button.

"Hey, have someone come in here and bring the prisoner somewhere she can sleep soundly, 'kay? Thank you darlin'," Bell said into the speaker.

"There, that should take care of you for now," Bell said to the sleeping Destiny, "I just wonder what happened in between those things that you consider that major highlights of your life. Your life had to have been more interesting after all, huh?"

---


	3. Part 3

[Author's Note: Part 3 is a setter upper for Part 4. While Part 3 does contain action, violence, and a small amount of gore (like, REALLY small, so don't get your hopes up), Part 4 is better for it. Trust me.

You also find out some more stuff about the characters.

As sort of a hinter, I'll set up some questions for you:

What is it that Julius and Sally have up thir sleeve?

Do Lance and Destiny have a thing for each other?

Just who is this Croy guy, really? And why are people constantly confusing him with this Daemon guy (who we've seen not a tail not hide of)?

Also, I did some of that thing that brains are sometimes known to do and I got that there should actually be six parts. Please don't throw something at me.

And this is where I roll the ball.]

---

_Experiment_

Part 3

---

Croy stared intently at the computer screen, as if that alone would give him the information he desired. He'd been trying forever to find it, but to no avail.

"I highly doubt that's going to work," a female voice said from behind Croy.

Croy whirled around to see a girl who looked to be about fifteen. She had light brown hair and olive green eyes.

"How'd you get in here?" Croy barked at the girl.

"My name is Fate," the girl said, smiling, "And I have a proposition for you."

"You still haven't answered my question," Croy growled. "I could send in guards right now. Now, how'd you get in here?"

"You see," Fate went on, ignoring Croy. "I happen to have known your 'father' from a couple of dealings."

Croy looked in surprise at the girl. What she had said couldn't be true. It couldn't, because—.

"Oh yes, Croy, it can," the girl said leaning forward and smiling smugly at Croy's astonished expression. "Oh, and this will blow your socks off. I'm not Earthon either."

"I can have you taken into custody!" Croy threatened.

Fate stood up straight and laughed.

"The only thing you'd succeed in doing, Croy, is making a fool out of yourself," she replied. "I'd simply disappear before the guards got in the room. Or even better yet, let you continue to see me, but no one else."

Croy looked at girl and started breathing heavily.

"You see, I'm practically the goddess of this world," Fate said, spreading her arms apart. "No, I am the author. I am the daydreamer that thought you into existence and controls everything in your pitiful life!"

Croy looked at her in what was the closest he'd ever gotten to horror.

"And I like making deals," Fate continued with a smile as she lowered her arms, "and I have one for you."

Croy looked at the girl suspiciously.

"Oh, and you'd better let Ricky in, he's got some important news to give you," Fate said, finishing up with a smirk.

Suddenly a knock was heard at the door and Ricky's voice came from behind it.

"Boss? I got something to tell you," he said.

"Come in," Croy said after a pause.

Ricky walked in and closed the door behind him. He was in his human form.

"Sir," Ricky said, walking up to Croy's desk. "Bell delved into a mind."

"Whose?" Croy asked, not liking the sound of this.

"The Destiny girl's mind," Ricky answered.

Croy stood up and swore, pounding his fist against his desk.

"Leave," he ordered Ricky, "I have some business to take care of before I can get to clearing up this whole mess."

Ricky nodded and left, closing the door behind him.

"So what do you want from me?" Croy asked, without even turning around.

"Simple, you let Destiny, her unofficial boyfriend, and the rest of them get away this one, upcoming time, and I give you the information you've been looking for," Fate answered. "It's as simple as that."

"I want a little more than that for my share of the deal," Croy replied, turning around.

"Okay, fine," Fate said. "All that, and I help you get a little further along in your big goal you have right now, okay?"

Croy stared at the girl for a few seconds and then put out his hand out. Fate grabbed it, shaking his hand.

"Deal," Croy said.

---

Destiny awoke inside the women's bedroom house. It was dark, but her eyes quickly adjusted.

"Well, well," Anne's voice said, "looks like you're finally awake."

Destiny sat herself up in bed and looked around. A couple of the other beds in the room were occupied. Destiny looked over to her right and saw Anne.

"We're on the second floor," she said. "It's not that far into the night phase, so not that many people are asleep."

Destiny sighed. She felt so… foggy. She knew what they had done to her, and what they had seen, which was never good.

"Is everything alright?" Anne asked. "What did they do to you?"

Destiny stayed quiet for a moment.

"Destiny, are you okay?" Anne pressed.

"No, not since Lance was used as an experiment," Destiny answered.

"I know how bad everything is," Anne said. "Though I can't say I know how you feel. My fiancé hasn't been used for any experiments."

"Then what's he here for?" Destiny asked in curiosity.

"He's working for this real butthead," Anne answered, "named Croy. He does a lot of dirty work and stuff for Croy, or something. He's basically Croy's right-hand man, as bad as that sounds."

Destiny's eyes widened with surprise and realization. Apparently Anne hadn't seen Destiny's astonishment in the darkened room because she continued on talking.

"But I'll tell you," Anne continued, "I don't know what I'd do if they did something to him like what they did to your friend Lance. You're real tough, you know that?"

That was a moment of silence. Destiny did nothing to acknowledge what Anne had said.

"Destiny?" Anne asked puzzled.

"Anne, I think I have some bad news to tell you," Destiny replied.

---

Lance flew over the treetops. The plan was simple enough, easy to remember. Though he still thought it probably wouldn't work. Lance wanted to do something more elaborate though, like rip out the spine of whomever was responsible for all this through his or her throat.

Lance took a deep breath. He was more upset with himself than anyone. He was so sure that he could've stopped Destiny from doing this. Or he could've come up with a better way to get her in there, keep her safe.

It was all his fault she'd gone. If he hadn't gone and gotten himself used in that stupid experiment, they'd be safe at home and probably have finished lunch a little while ago.

He looked down at the changing scenery. He was almost to the area the other dragonite had told him to be at. He could even see what was in store for him with his own eyes.

And he wanted to kill the person responsible for one thing he'd seen.

He landed in front of two men.

Lance's form shifted from dragonite to man. The other two men watched in silence.

"Well, it's good to see that you were able to make it," one of the men said snidely. "My name is Croy."

"You… look a lot… like Daemon," Lance said through trying to catch his breath.

"Yes, well that's not what we're here to discuss," Croy replied.

"No, it's what's behind you," Lance replied with a glare.

Behind the two men was Destiny, locked in a large plastic box, unconscious.

"Yes, I suppose it is," Croy said with a smirk. "Now let's get down to business. You will work for me, and withstand testing, or we'll kill Destiny here."

Lance smirked.

"Good luck with that," he said.

"I wouldn't be so quick to jump to conclusions," Croy said with a replying grin. "I have a wonderful little thing that will persuade you otherwise."

Croy took a vial from his coat pocket.

"Earthin's bane," Croy said smugly.

Lance's face went pale at the name. So they hadn't been bluffing. He remembered all too well what happens to an Earthon that is dosed with it.

They die a slow, agonizing death. Every molecule of there body begins to separate, slowly. The after affect is a puddle of what used to be an Earthon.

It wasn't the prettiest thing to think about, but it was what happens…

"You sonuva…" Lance began.

Croy laughed.

"Well, now that you see it my way…" he said with a smirk.

"Not quite," Lance said.

Croy looked at Lance with a puzzled expression. Then his face turned into a sudden realization. He spun around and looked at the box.

It was empty.

"That's impossible!" he exclaimed. "There was no way she could get out! We're in a psychic proof area, so she couldn't have teleported off; there weren't even air holes in that thing!"

"The latter may be true, but there's something you don't know about the psychic proof shield," Lance said smirking. "Though, I really don't care to explain it to you. All you need to know is that Destiny didn't teleport herself out of here."

Croy turned and glared at Lance.

"Ricky, get him!" he ordered.

The other man shot forward at Lance.

---

What no one but Destiny knew was that Fate had paid her a visit while she was still unconscious in the plastic box.

Destiny found herself in what seemed to be a dream. Everything was dark, and she seemed to be floating.

Then a figured appeared a little ways in front of her. It looked to be a girl with light brown hair in two braided ponytails and in a pink pajama outfit.

"Hello, Destiny," the girl said.

"What are doing here Fate?" Destiny asked. "And what are you playing at, showing up like that?"

Fate looked down at her pajamas.

"Oh these?" she said "Well, I'm going to be going to sleep soon, so I was just getting ready for bed."

"You mean to tell me you actually rest and take breaks from messing with people's lives?" Destiny asked.

"I don't think it's what you think," Fate answered. "See, whenever I go to sleep, your world stops, even though you don't realize it."

"Oh, so what are you saying? That this world revolves around you?"

"Yep," Fate said grinning and nodding her head, "but that's not why I'm here."

"Oh, then why are you?" Destiny asked.

"Right now, Lance and Croy are 'negotiating'," Fate began to answer, "and both believe that they have the upper hand, you could say. Croy believes he has you, and Lance believes that he has a way to save you. What Lance doesn't know is that Julius, who has enough psychic power to teleport you out of harms way, has completely no idea what he's supposed to do and is now taking a nap on Sally's lap. Sally's trying her hardest to wake up the dork without making a lot of noise, and will get no where with that. In other words, you're stuck and Lance will have to basically pledge his allegiance to Croy because of that."

"What? And you're telling me this, why?" Destiny asked in a sort of panic.

"Because you have an opportunity to change that possible turn of events by simply agreeing that you will not kill Croy in exchange for me getting you to a safe location and bringing you back to consciousness," Fate answered with a smile. "As a bonus I'll even throw in getting rid of those annoying anti-psychic trackers."

"Fine," Destiny said, "I agree to your terms."

"Goodie!" Fate said gleefully.

She then snapped her fingers and Destiny awoke.

---

Lance dodged the punch by jumping to the side. He elbowed Ricky in the back, causing Ricky to loose his breath and fall hard to the ground. Lance then turned and ran at Croy, his left hand crackling with electricity. Lance threw a thunderwave at Croy, who, in turn, jumped out of the way.

But as Croy was still in mid-jump, Lance used an agility to get up close to Croy; he then put his right hand against Croy's chest, and shot a hyperbeam from it.

Croy flew back and crashed into the plastic box Destiny had been in. The blast tore open a nice size gash in his chest, red from blood and black from the burns.

Lance landed on his feet and then jumped to his right, just barely evading an attack from Ricky. Ricky then turned and used slam on Lance, forcing him hard into the ground.

Lance cringed for a moment, but came back with a thunderwave. He then threw Ricky off of him and stood up.

He then looked in surprise at what he saw as he stood up. Croy grinned at him, fully healed. Even his outfit showed no signs of damage. Lance shook off the surprise and smiled.

"I had made a guess," he said to Croy, "and it seems that it was right."

He then looked to Ricky, who was attempting standing up.

"I would love to stay, but I have to go," Lance finished up saying.

He then spread out two blue-green wings that resembled that of a dragonite's, and went airborne, flying off away from Croy and Ricky.

Croy watched as Lance flew off and then smiled.

He then looked at Ricky, who had finally succeeded in standing up.

"Well done," he said to Ricky. "I now have what I want."

He walked over to Ricky and then dug a full heal out off his pocket and gave it to Ricky.

"Though try not to get so beat up next time," Croy finished saying before walking off.

Ricky looked at the full heal. He didn't understand what had just happened. Croy had received what had been a near fatal injury, at best, but then he stood up, without even a scratch.

And what was more, was that Croy had just complimented him. True, Croy had told him that he was to let Lance, the girl, and whoever else to get away, but still…

It didn't make any sense…

---

Destiny looked out the cave entrance and then sighed. She was sitting against the cave wall thinking about what had happened over just the last few days.

She had discovered that Lance had been turned into a dragonite. Then the next day she met Sally and Julius, who needed her help in getting the cure to their genetic mutation. After a little while she successfully managed to get inside the base of the team that had turned all three of them into experiments, but got caught just after she managed to find Sally and Julius's cure but before she could get the cure for Lance. She was then placed in a prison that looked more like a nature reserve than anything. Then somebody shifted through her memories. Luckily they hadn't seen a couple of the ones in between and after the memories that they had looked at, but it was still an uncomfortable thought, especially since that person now knew what Destiny was. Then the next day, Fate had appeared and rescued her, but only because Destiny had agreed that she wouldn't kill Croy.

Destiny sighed to herself.

"Life could be so complicated sometimes," she said to Espeon as she pet the little pokémon.

She looked up at the sky, hoping to see some sign of someone returning. She squinted, thinking she'd seen something.

She stood up and gave a smile full of relief.

Soon, Lance landed in front of the cave and Destiny rushed forward, hugging him.

"Thank God you're alright," Lance said as he hugged her back.

Destiny stood back and smiled.

"I was just about to say the same thing," she commented.

Lance smiled at Destiny. He was so relieved that she was okay.

"Hey, Lance," Destiny said, looking a little ways behind him. "When did you learn how to do that?"

Lance looked at his wings.

"Honestly?" he replied, "About over a week ago."

The wings then grew shorter and then disappeared.

"So are you doing okay?" Destiny asked. "I've been up for quite a while. That probably means you've been human for a while."

"Yeah, but I can manage a little while longer," Lance answered.

Destiny then looked up at the sky and grinned.

"Looks like our favorite couple is back," she said.

Lance looked up and saw Sally not too far from the cave. She soon landed, holding a snoozing Julius, who was drooling and catching flies.

"I swear, he's the most useless person on God's green earth," Sally commented.

"I have to admit," Lance said with a smile, "I was pretty sure that he wouldn't pull through."

"He didn't," Sally replied, dumping Julius on the ground in front of her, "he went to sleep the moment I tried explaining to him what he was supposed to do."

Lance frowned.

"That can't be right," he commented. "Destiny was out of harms way and over here when she was supposed to be."

"Well it wasn't this dufus's fault," Sally said.

Lance looked at Destiny.

"Then how…" he started saying.

"Fate helped," Destiny said, "She had me make a deal. She got me out of their way, and I can't kill Croy."

"Well that'd be kind of hard to do anyway," Lance replied. "I found out something interesting about that 'Croy' guy."

"Really? What?" Destiny asked.

"That if he's not Daemon, he must be his twin," Lance answered.

"Is he a…?" Destiny trailed off.

"If you're thinking what I'm thinking, then 'yes.'"

"But… How?" Destiny asked, looking confused.

At that moment, Julius snorted then shot into an upright position.

"Porky fries! Look out!" he shouted.

Everyone stared at Julius.

"Why, hello there," Julius said with a dim-witted grin.

"Right, as I was saying," Destiny said, looking back at Lance, "how?"

"It beats me," Lance said. "To my knowledge, when Daemon died, you were the only one left."

Julius, in the mean time, had picked up a rock, thrown it into the air once, then, with a very serious expression, stood up.

"I know how," Julius said. "Croy isn't Daemon, though he is the closest he can get to being him."

Everyone once again turned their attention to Julius, puzzled by his sudden seriousness.

"Daemon needed a way to change his own molecular structure to match that of Destiny's own kind. But he needed to do it in a way that ensured that he wouldn't die in the process of being transformed," Julius continued. "Do you know the easiest solution to something like that?"

"He needed a clone," Lance answered, grasping, now, what Julius was leading onto.

"Exactly," Julius said, smirking. "He had his team create clones of himself, then had them experimented on. Each one was watched carefully, and each was given a different variable of drugs. Croy was the only one of the clones who was successful. The rest are, by now, dead."

"Well that's a relief," Lance said. "Here I thought it was Daemon, back from the dead, and with an identity crisis to boot."

"Wait, wait, wait," Sally said, waving her hands in front of her. "Who's this Daemon you guys keep talking about?"

"He's the leader of a team that used to be the rival team to the one we worked for," Julius answered, looking at Sally, "They were into illegal stuff as well. Daemon was really into finding out ways to become immortal and powerful, and he found it in Destiny. He was always a thorn in their side up until the day that he was killed."

Sally looked over at Destiny and Lance.

"Yeah, but that's all past now," Lance said. "What we need to know is what Croy is up to. Can you tell us Julius?"

Julius blinked, then stared at Lance. He extended out his arm with the rock and turned it so his hand was palm up.

"Pie?" Julius asked with a huge idiotic grin.

"Figures," Sally said, giving a sigh.

"What I would like to know, it how Julius knows so much," Destiny said, "and yet can't, for anything, keep his senses together."

"Don't know about the senses thing," Sally said, "but the almost all knowing part comes from him being such a powerful psychic. Every time he transformed, he'd get deeper into the left field, as you know. However, his psychic energy would build with every time he would transform as well. He's now so powerful, that nothing anti-psychic will work on him."

"Amazing," Destiny said. "You know, I bet that every time he would transform, he'd some how gain more psychic energy. But the thing is that he would gain it too quickly, not allowing his mind to pass the power onto the unused area of his brain. Either that or the unused area wasn't 'exercised' enough for it. But, either way, that caused the psychic energy to build up in an area of his mind used for a certain mental stability—"

"Okay!" Sally shouted. "Please stop with the confusing of my mind."

"Sorry," Destiny said, "I have a tendency to think out-loud sometimes."

"Yeah," Sally replied, "but you could—"

Suddenly, Lance's knees gave in. Destiny turned and caught him under his upper arm, then reached over and grabbed his other side.

"Lance, you need to change back," Destiny said, "You've been a human for too long."

Lance looked at Destiny. Her face was serious, but full of worry.

"Alright," he said. "Prop me up against one of the walls in the cave."

Destiny nodded and helped Lance get into the cave. She sat him by the wall, letting him lean his back against it.

"I have to tell you something first," Lance said, sweat beginning to form on his forehead, "but I need to do it in private."

Destiny nodded and then looked over at Sally.

"Could you get Julius away so that Lance and I can talk alone for a few moments, Sally?" she asked.

"Well, since you asked so nicely," Sally replied.

"Thanks," Destiny said.

Sally smiled and then grabbed her boyfriend by the arm and dragged him off as he attempted to eat the rock that he had previously offered to Lance. Espeon glanced at Destiny and then followed after the two.

As soon as Destiny thought that the others were out of hearing range, she turned and looked at Lance.

"So, what was so important that you couldn't wait until after you'd transformed to tell me?" Destiny asked Lance.

"Well, I have two reasons for telling you I wanted to talk to you privately," Lance answered. He then shifted his voice into a whisper that got slowly softer and softer. "The first reason was because I don't want anyone else watching me transform. The second, though, is the more important of the two."

"What?" Destiny asked in a whisper, leaning closer so she could hear him better.

Lance put his hand on Destiny's neck, then leaned forward and kissed her.

After a moment, they separated, both surprised at what had just happened, especially Destiny. Though she'd figured he had feelings for her, she never expected something like that from Lance. And Lance, he was just surprised that he'd gone through with it.

"Did you just…?" Destiny began to ask, dumb-founded.

"I think I did," Lance said almost equally dumb-founded.

They stared at each other until Lance almost toppled over.

"You alright?" Destiny asked, leaning him back up against the wall.

But Lance was too busy transforming to really answer Destiny's question. At least, that's how he wanted it to seem.

A couple minutes later, Lance was once again a dragonite; though, he passed out from exhaustion after he finished. Destiny had laid him down on the cave floor and was now hugging her knees close to herself.

"Now what do I do?" Destiny asked her own self. "So many changes in so little time, I feel like nothing's going to be the same again…"

---

Croy looked at his pen that he held on one of his hands. He was resting his other elbow on his chair's armrest, and resting his cheek against the fist that his hand made.

He dangled the pen by its end and then rocked it back and forth.

"Bored?" a voice asked from behind him.

Croy sat up straight and then put his pen on his desk.

"You sure took your time," he said.

Fate walked to in front of Croy's desk.

"I had other things to do," Fate said.

"Well, I went through with my part of the deal," Croy said. "Now where's yours?"

"Don't have a cow," Fate said, "Now, I can help you one of a couple different ways. The first involves the sudden natural death of a couple people who are keeping you tied down."

"I like that one," Croy said, with a smile. "Would one of the people happen to be Bell?"

"Nope," Fate said, "I have plans for her."

"Alright," Croy replied. "What else do you have?"

"I could help you win the favor of the team leader," Fate answered, "but that would probably have to be a little more elaborate, involving you fixing problems that pop up that are really… messy."

"How about both?" Croy asked.

"Oh, you would have to do something really important for me in order to get both," Fate said with a grin.

"Alright then, what do you want me to do?" Croy asked.

"Nothing for now," Fate answered, "but, you still need to decide which plan you want to go through with for now."

Croy thought a moment.

If there were sudden, natural deaths, and he got moved up because of it that might make him look a little suspicious. But it would get him closer to his goal. Of course, so might doing things to get the attention and approval of the team leader.

"Let's see if I can win some favor," Croy said, with a grin.

---

Destiny glanced over at Lance and then back to the stew that she was stirring.

"The food's almost ready," she said.

"Great!" Sally said, grinning, "I'm starving."

"I like those, too!" Julius shouted, grinning dumbly, "They are shiny and sparkly just like cheese!"

Sally rolled her eyes and sighed.

"Good grief," she said.

Destiny chuckled and kept stirring the stew.

Lance glanced over at her and then sighed. He felt stupid for having done so many things lately. What he had done before transforming back the last time made him feel even worse.

Destiny took the pot out of the holder she used to suspend it above the fire. She placed it on the cave floor and served it into eight bowls. She then sent out Alakazam, Gardevoir, and Ninetales and called Espeon over.

"Alright," she said, standing up, "dinner is served."

"Great, thanks," Sally said as she came over and took the bowl that Destiny offered her and then another for Julius.

Destiny looked over at Lance, who just sat staring at them.

"Well, you going to come eat or not? I made this stuff special so we could all eat some," she said to him. "Pokémon can eat it as well as people."

'_No thanks_,' he said to her through thought. '_I'm not really that hungry._'

Destiny frowned and then looked at Sally, who was trying to get Julius to stop playing with his food. Destiny sighed and grabbed up her bowl and Lance's and then walked over to where he was. She sat down by him and held a bowl out in front of him. He sighed and took it.

'_What's wrong?_' she asked him through telepathy.

'_It's just… Look, I'm sorry about earlier_,' he replied through thought.

'_What? The kiss?_' she replied through telepathy.

'_Yes…_' Lance replied, turning red.

'_Don't worry about it_,' she said, still using telepathy.

There was a moment of silence. Both Destiny and Lance stared at their own bowls of soup.

'_You know, sometimes when I look at you,_' Destiny said telepathically, '_I see what you look like as a human. It's a faded version, and I still see you as a dragonite, but I can see how you really feel. I can see your expression, the one __one __that reflects your true feelings…And I know that right now you're upset._'

Lance looked over at Destiny with surprise. After a short moment he smiled, sighed, and closed his eyes.

'_Of course I couldn't keep you from knowing,_' he replied through thought. '_You always seem to find out one way or another._'

'_I'm sorry,_' she said, '_I really didn't mean to—_.'

'_Yeah, I know,_' Lance said, looking back at her. '_It's fine, really._'

Destiny frowned and then looked at the ground in front of her.

'_And I also have some really bad news,_' she said telepathically.

'_What?_' Lance asked, now quite concerned.

'_The team that we're dealing with now was able to develop a devise that sees into human memories. I know this because they used it on me._'

'_WHAT?_' Lance shouted through thought.

'_They know that I'm from another planet, they know I wished myself here, they know that I'm an Earthon, and they know that we knew Daemon_,' Destiny continued, '_but luckily they didn't see past the day I first gave you youth._'

For a moment Lance was silent.

'_I'll kill them,_' he said. '_They went too far and they won't get away with what they did…_'

---


	4. Part 4

[Author's Note: Yay! Gore! Um, I mean: in Part 4 there's two _kinda_ simultaneous battles. They're shorter than I remember them being though. Maybe it's because I'm a little taller than I was when I woke this part.

Anyway, my favorite plot twist comes in Part 4. My friends were really surprised when they read this. Heh, I still remember picking up the phone to converse with my one friend and hearing her shout about how she couldn't believe I did that.

You probably won't be so stunned, seeing as how you know me so little.

By the way, thanks for reading so far! You've made it more than halfway through!

(turns on the music)]

---

_Experiment_

Part 4

---

Anne sat down by a tree and sighed. Mack looked over at her with a grin on his face.

"What's wrong? Got the prison blues?" he inquired.

"No, I'm just worried about Destiny," she said. "I'm afraid that her friend didn't do what they wanted and that she's dead now."

Mack laughed.

"Do you always think this positively?" he asked her with a grin. "I can't believe that you're worried that she got killed."

Anne looked up at Mack and frowned.

"And how can you not be worried?" she asked in reply.

Mack looked up and the ceiling.

"Because, I know that she managed to escape," he said.

Anne sighed.

"You think too positively," she said, looking at the grass in front of her.

"I don't think," Mack said, "it hurts my head. I only know things, and I know that she's alright."

Anne laughed.

"I can definitely agree you don't think," she said.

Mack continued grinning.

"I'll just take that as a compliment," he said.

Suddenly, the scenery around the two of them changed. They were by a mountain with a cave entrance and a forest to the other side. All the prisoners were there in a group.

And they were outside.

Anne stood up, looked up at the sky, and smiled.

"We're out," she said, "We're out…"

A clamor began to start through out the crowd. Shouts of joy, people crying with happiness, and even a little bit of dancing started to take place.

"Julius you dope! Look what you did!" a shout came from the cave.

Everyone turned to see a woman with wings and talon feet punch an even stranger looking man on the head.

"But it was the hiccup's fault!" he shouted in his defense, "It just wanted tea!"

Then, a young woman, a teenager with brown hair ran into view, with a dragonite right behind her.

The girl stopped short and stared at the group of people.

"Destiny!" Anne shouted.

She ran over and gave the girl a hug. She then stood back with her hands on Destiny's shoulders and grinned.

"I was so worried about you!" Anne continued. "When they took you off yesterday and you didn't come back, I thought that was it!"

Destiny blinked. She then grinned and looked at the dragonite.

"These are the prisoners that were in the team dungeon with me!" she said. She then looked back at Anne. "This is so great, Anne! You guys got out!"

"I don't know how either, but I'm so thankful that we were able to get away," she said smiling.

Destiny grinned and looked behind Anne.

"I think that I know how you got away," Destiny said, "and I think it's thanks to that dork over there."

Anne turned around and looked over at Julius and Sally. Most of the other people were now crowded around the couple gawking and asking questions.

"Wow, what are you?"

"Can I touch you're wing?"

"What's up with his ears?"

"Hey, are you guys part pokémon?"

"BACK OFF!" Sally shouted.

Everyone took a few steps back.

"There, that's much better," Sally said.

Anne looked over at Destiny.

"Uh…" she began.

"Don't worry," Destiny said, "Sally's actually pretty nice most of the time. It's actually her boyfriend Julius that got you guy's here. He's pretty far into the left field, but he's a real powerful psychic. Both of them were used as experiments a while back by the same team that kept you guys captive."

Anne turned back and looked at them. She was silent for a moment.

Then, her expression turned to that of horror.

She looked down at her wrists.

The anti-psychic trackers were still there.

Destiny realized what Anne saw and her expression turned to the same as Anne's.

She turned and looked at the dragonite behind her.

"Lance, we're in serious trouble…" Destiny said to him.

---

Ricky walked down the hall. He looked down at his hand… A dragonite's hand…

He stopped and looked ahead of him. He really didn't feel like going today. Perhaps he's just—.

"I'm not joking!" a voice came from a slightly opened door a few feet in front of Ricky, "All of them are gone! The readings from the bands relocated to an area to the west of here. It's about fifteen miles at a slight north incline in that direction. They also seem to be near some mountains."

There was a pause.

"Yes! All the prisoners! I'm sure!" the man shouted.

Ricky's eyes widened.

If all the prisoners had escaped, then that meant that…

Ricky crept up to the door and peered into the cracked space. To his luck, the map was right in his view, and a cluster of dots were blinking on a single location on it.

He smiled to himself, realizing the irony in the situation. He crept away from the door and turned down the hall. He got into the elevator and pressed a series of numbers.

It was time for him to get some fresh air. But first, he needed to find something.

---

Croy held a phone to his ear. He nodded.

"Yes sir," he said.

There was a pause.

"Sir, does she really have to come?" he asked.

Another pause.

Croy sighed.

"Yes, sir, I understand," he replied.

He hung up the phone.

"Bell's always such a pain in my side," he said to himself.

Croy sighed and stood up.

"Don't mess this up," Fate said. "Remember what I told you to do."

"If Bell doesn't mess it all up," Croy said.

"Trust me," Fate said. "She won't mess you up if you stick to what I told you."

Croy gave a short laugh.

"Yeah, sure," he said as he walked out of the room. He shut the door behind him and walked off.

Fate stood there for a moment and then smiled.

"You're soon going to wish you'd just stuck with the deal I'd originally presented you," Fate said with a grin. "You may have wanted that promotion, but what you have to do to get it puts you in the way of bigger plans…"

Croy put his finger to his ear as he walked down the hall.

"Ricky, I'm going to go somewhere, you are to remain in the base, understood?" he said as he marched toward the elevator.

After a moment of silence, he stopped.

"Ricky, do you understand?" he shouted.

Still no reply.

Croy growled and continued his marched toward the elevator.

What a day this was turning out to be.

---

Destiny frowned and looked down, thoughtfully.

"We can't just leave them here and run off," she said.

"Of course not," Sally said, "That would be heartless!"

"_I agree, but we need to do something,_" Lance said through thought to Destiny.

"Oh, if only those things weren't psychic-proof! I could teleport them off, make them go one way and teleport us another way," Destiny said.

"No! My beef fries! They taste like blue!" Julius shouted.

Sally rolled her eyes and pushed Julius away from their little huddle. It'd been a little less then an hour since Anne and the others had been teleported to the cave and still no solution had been reached. They knew that time was running out, and fast.

"Hey, guys?" Anne said. "I'm starting to get a little nervous here."

Destiny sighed and turned around.

"Alright, I think it's come to this," she said. "If these people attack sometime soon, we're going to have to try to defend and run. There's little other choice."

Anne nodded and looked over at the group of people.

"Alright everyone, we need to be prepared," she said, "and get ready to head out, too. They could be here any second."

Everyone started moving about, talking, and preparing to make a get away.

And as this took place, Lance and Destiny were having their own conversation.

"Lance, please be careful," she said, looking at him. "I have a bad feeling about all this, and I'm afraid that something bad will happen to you. Espeon has the same feelings, too, and you know how accurate her predictions can be."

"_Don't worry_," he said through thought. "_I'll be alright. I know how to look out after myself. You just make sure you don't get yourself into any trouble._"

Destiny smiled at Lance, though it was more of a smile of assurance than of joy.

"Just, please, don't get yourself killed," she said. "It'd be hard to live out my life without you there as company."

Lance smiled back at Destiny, but the meaning was the same as her smile. He then looked at the group of people moving about, trying to get organized. Destiny looked at him for a moment before imitating his movement.

"Do you think that we'll actually be able to help them?" she asked in a low voice, so that only he could hear.

"_Only time will tell,_" Lance answered. "_But if anyone can do it, it's you_."

"I only pray that I can help them," Destiny said, "because if I can't, then that condemns us as well."

Lance looked over at Destiny. His gaze then wandered to the ground.

"_I'm sorry,_" he said to her through thought. "_This is all my fault._"

Destiny looked over at Lance.

"No, no, it's not your fault," she said. "It's not all your fault. This is no more your fault then it is mine."

Lance remained silent, staring at the ground.

"Lance… Do you know what your fate actually is?" Destiny asked after a moment. "It's the outcome of everyone's decisions, or destinies. What has happened is a little bit your fault, but it's also mine, Julius's, Sally's, and so many other people's whom we have never even met before. Everything that happens in our lives is never just our fault or the fault of others alone, but every destiny of every person. So don't be upset about this, us getting in this mess wasn't just your fault, okay?"

"_Yeah, but if I hadn't gone off and—,_" Lance began to reply.

"No!" Destiny said, cutting him off. "Every decision we make becomes entwined in one fate or another. There was no way that you could've known the outcome of what you did."

Lance looked at Destiny, a bit surprised at the verbal slap that she'd just given him. After a moment, he smiled.

"_Thanks Destiny_," he said through thought.

"Hey, I'm always here to slap you back to reality," she said with a smirk.

"Uh, guys?" Sally said.

She was looking up at the sky and her expression was now filled with worry.

Destiny, Lance, and everyone else looked at her.

"We've got company," Sally said, looking back at the group.

"Oh boy," Destiny said.

"Alright! Everyone to the entrance, now. Stay in a group, we don't want to spread out until the last possible moment," Anne said, taking on a sort of commanding air. "The moment we split up is the moment that we know we've lost, and we will not lose. This is our life and we're not going to let some stupid organization beat us and take it from us!"

"Wow, Anne sure does know how to give speeches…" Destiny said.

"_Yeah, in a kind of scary way that makes me glad I'm the not poor guy that's marrying her,_" Lance said through thought. "_Though she is nice, I'll give her that. But still… Scary._"

Destiny elbowed his side then walked over to the group. Lance walked over by her a moment later.

Destiny took one last look at Lance.

"Be careful," she said.

Lance gave a nod and a smile, assuring her he'd be all right. Destiny nodded and smiled back, assuring him she would be fine as well.

---

"How you enjoying the flight?" Bell shouted to Croy.

Croy was riding a salamence and Bell a flygon.

Bell seemed to be having a blast, but Croy…

"The sooner I get to these stupid people, the faster I can get away from her," he reassured himself under his breath.

"What?" Bell asked.

"Nothing!" Croy answered.

_Lord, I hate that lady,_ he thought to himself.

"Hey! I can see people down there!" Bell shouted, pointing at a cliff face.

And indeed there was. A whole group of them running to the right, by the cliff wall.

"I call first dibs! Hope you don't mind, Hun!" she shouted, racing ahead.

Croy nearly bolted after her, but stopped.

"Don't take the first blow out of greed," he muttered under his breath. "I hope Fate knew what she was talking about when she said that…"

Bell soon zipped in front of the group, her landing blowing dirt everywhere.

"Good Flygon," she said, taking out her pokéball and returning it.

"Now," she said, smiling and turning her attention to the group, "all of you come with me, or I'll have to force you to."

"I'll fight her," Destiny said in a low voice to Anne. "That should divert her attention long enough for you to go around through the trees. I'll catch up with you later."

Anne nodded.

Destiny stepped forward.

"Alright, I choose the option where I beat you and we leave," Destiny said with a grin. Then, in a low voice she said to Anne. "Hurry, Lance will go along with you."

Destiny walked closer to Bell and smiled. Anne silently directed the group into the trees as the other two women stared it out.

After a few moments, Destiny took a fighting stance.

Bell smirked and took the same exact stance. After a moment, Bell shot forward towards Destiny.

Destiny dodged the punch with a clear jump to her right.

But before Destiny could react, Bell swung around, her left arm now a blade. The blade barely missed cutting Destiny by mere millimeters.

Destiny landed then back up a couple spaces.

"What's the matter?" Bell asked, turning her other arm into a blade. "Were you not expecting that?"

Destiny gave a half smile.

"No, honestly, I wasn't," she answered, "but don't think that I'm not full of surprises either."

Destiny put her hand out in front of her. An aura of colors swirled before her hand, then stretched out, forming into a double sword.

"Oh, well doesn't that look familiar," Bell commented.

Destiny looked at her surprised for a moment and then frowned.

"So you're the one that saw my memories," she said.

Bell smirked and then lunged forward. She brought both her blade arms towards Destiny's sides. Destiny brought her double sword up from under them, forcing the blades harmlessly over her head. An electrical wave shot from the double sword, burning through Bell.

"AAAAHHHHHHH!!!!" she screamed in pain.

She backed away, her arms returning to normal. She doubled over from the pain, holding onto herself. After a moment, she stood up straight looked at Destiny and grinned.

Destiny stared wide-eyed at the person that stood across from her.

The person was Destiny, too.

The other Destiny held her elemental double sword in front of herself and gave a wicked half grin to the original Destiny.

---

"Come on people! Keep running!" Anne shouted to the group as they ran through the forest.

Lance was flying above the group, making sure nothing went wrong and especially that whoever was on the other pokémon kept far away.

Sally would've joined him in the air, but she had to take care of her bumbling, babbling boyfriend.

"I don't like any of this," Sally said to Anne as she, too, ran, leading Julius by the hand, who was currently examining the palm of his hand with a great interest.

"Well, if you'd said otherwise, I'd say you needed your head examined," Anne replied.

"It's just that, I have a real strong feeling that something bad might possibly happen," Sally responded, "and so does Destiny's espeon. And that little booger says she's never been wrong."

"Well, we'll just have to hope that it's not too bad," Anne replied.

"Yeah," Sally said, a little doubtfully.

"PUMPKIN!" Julius shouted, pointing at the sky.

Sally looked up just in time to see a salamence fly just barely under Lance, who'd dodged the attack at the last second.

Sally stopped fast in her tracks, as so did the others after seeing her staring at the sky. Sally pushed past a couple people and gave Julius's hand to Anne.

"Watch this for me please," she said.

She then spread her wings and flew up towards Lance.

Lance looked over and saw Sally.

"[Go back!]" he shouted. "[I'll be fine. You and the others get out of here!]"

Sally stopped and hovered in mid air for a moment and then nodded.

"Alright!" she shouted.

She turned back and headed towards the group to tell them to keep going.

Lance then flew up, dodging a dragon breath from the salamence.

"Doing the brave hero thing now, are we?" Croy asked Lance. "You do know that if you face me, you have no hope of winning, right?"

Lance gave a short laugh.

"You doubt me?" Croy asked. "Salamence, land. I think that we'll settle this matter on the ground. Give the little dragon boy an advantage, if he knows how to use it, that is."

Both Croy and Lance landed in a clearing by the mountain, both keeping an eye on the other. Croy recalled the salamence, folded his arms behind his back, opening himself to an attack, and smiled.

Lance gave a low growl. Croy's arrogance was annoying, but even Lance realized it was not misplaced.

"You know, unlike my 'father,' I'm not dumb enough to actually carry Earthin's Bane with me wherever I go," Croy said with a smirk, "so it's going to be harder to kill me than it was him."

Lance lunged forward using extreme speed. He struck a dragon claw at Croy, but Croy dodged by jumping to the side. Lance turned and used twister. The force of it threw Croy up and at the mountain, slamming him into the cliff wall.

Lance stopped attacking with twister, letting Croy start to fall. Lance then bolted forward, smashing Croy into the wall using extreme speed. Then, using the same attack, he ripped Croy up the cliff side by his neck. When he reached the top of the cliff, Lance threw Croy towards the ground. He charged up a hyperbeam and blasted Croy into the ground.

Lance took a moment to catch his breath, and then landed near the small crater Croy's impact had made. He walked a couple steps towards the crater and then stopped.

Croy stood up, unharmed, and just brushed the dirt off of himself. He then looked up at Lance and smiled a wicked smile.

He shot forward, slamming Lance into a tree. He grabbed Lance's arm and gave it a hard twist.

Lance cried out in pain with the sickening crack that came from his limb.

"You see, you're no match for me. I'm immortal," Croy said with a grin, "but you're not."

"How…?" Destiny asked in a state of shock.

"Well, since I know so much about you, I suppose it's only fair that I let you know this one thing," the other Destiny said. "It was back when I lost my boyfriend. I was depressed, suicidal. I signed up for an experiment that was, well, highly experimental. No one knew what would happen, only that it was dangerous. At that point in time, I just wanted to die. So I volunteered in hopes I would die.

"The experiment involved a theoretical process of changing certain parts of the human DNA to match that of a ditto's. It would enable that person the look like whatever they wanted; living or whatever, they could look it. They would also take on the abilities of the organism. But you know, out of all the people to undertake the testing, I was the only one that lived. Nothing that they did could reveal why. They tested on other people with similar traits, but they found nothing. I found it so ironic that I had signed up in hopes of dying, but was the only one that lived. But soon afterward, I thought about it, and I realized something. It was a sign that I was destined for greatness, that I was destined to be a survivor. So I accepted what had happened and used it to wriggle my way up through the ranks until I became a team elite."

"Touching," Destiny said dryly, "I think I need a tissue."

"Laugh all you want, I'm not an elite for no reason," the copy Destiny said. "You're no match for me. I know exactly how to use someone's own power against them."

"Well then let's tango," Destiny said with a smirk.

Destiny spun her double sword around, creating a wheel of fire that shot out at the fake Destiny. The copy spun her own, creating a wheel of water to counter the fire. Destiny jumped up, using the elemental double sword to make a gust of wind that carried her approximately thirty feet into the air. She then slashed her double sword in an arch at the copy Destiny, letting a strike of lightening flow out of it.

The imposter Destiny used her double sword to create a gust of wind that forced her out of the way of the lightening bolt. Destiny landed near the copy and struck her own double sword at the imposter. The fake blocked with the metal pole section, then twisted around, running Destiny's own double sword off of hers and struck quickly at Destiny.

Destiny was just barely able to block with the flat end of her double sword. She pushed the blade away, then elbowed the copy Destiny in the face.

The fake stumbled back a few paces, grabbing her nose and mouth.

"Nice hit," the fake managed to get out. She turned her head to the side and spit, the mucus red with blood. She looked back at Destiny and smirked. "It's been a while since I had a fight this interesting."

"Don't flatter yourself," Destiny said. "I'm just being easy on you."

"Sure, and I've been giving all I have," the imposter said in a very sarcastic tone.

She ran at Destiny thrusting her double sword into Destiny's gut, at the same time that Destiny ran her own through the same place in the imposter Destiny's gut.

Both stayed quiet and wide-eyed for a moment.

Then, one of the Destinys' expression cooled into a smirk and she grabbed onto her opponent's double sword and yanked out both blades from their stomachs. The other Destiny poured blood and fell to her knees, grabbing her stomach, attempting to keep her insides and blood where they belonged.

But no blood poured from the standing Destiny. Her wound had healed as soon as the weapon had been removed.

Then both began to transform.

The Destiny on her knees, holding her wound, morphed into an injured Bell.

The Destiny standing, both elemental double swords disappeared from her hands and she began to change.

Silver scales began to appear in a rushing line, from her feet to her head. After a moment stood a creature covered in those scales. It had the figure of a woman, and looked as though it was only a very tight outfit was covering her. She was now taller, more defined though. She also had a tail that swung back and forth like a cat's, though it had a pointed end, shaped like a small pyramid, and was completely prehensile. She had no face or hair. Only bumps and crevasses where her eyes, nose and other things a face would need would be.

Bell stared in horror at what she saw.

"What—What are you?" she stammered out.

"I am the nightmare that will haunt you for the rest of your life, if you manage to survive," the creature answered, though there was not a mouth for the sound to come from. "I am what no one can kill. I am the immortal, and one of a nearly nonexistent race.

"I am an Earthon."

Bell fell silent for a moment, then wavered back and forth, eyes drooping.

"Sweet dreams," the Earthon said in a sweet voice.

And Bell's world became black.

She fell over, unconscious, and blood spilled from her.

---

Lance used his uninjured arm to come across Croy's face with a dragon claw. Croy let go of Lance's arm and stepped back. The open wounds quickly closed.

"You know, even though I'm seriously handicapping this battle, you are still managing to not put a dent in me," Croy said in a certain smug sort of manner.

Lance's blood boiled. This man was getting on his last nerves, but there was nothing he could do about it.

Unless…

But he would have to be human, and transforming would wear him out too much for that.

Lance frowned. This battle was no good. He was going to lose. There was nothing he could do to win. This man was the same species as Destiny, and Lance had seen her fight too many times to think that he had a chance.

The only hope was to keep at this until Destiny got here. That was the only way there would be a chance to stop this guy.

Lance shot a hyperbeam at Croy, but Croy easily moved out of the way.

"Oh, so you hope that your Madam Destiny will come to save the day?" Croy asked, after the attack ended. "Well that wouldn't do. She might actually be a match for me and I really need to get to recapturing those prisoners. I don't have time for idle blah."

Lance shot a dragon rage at Croy.

But instead of dodging, Croy ran right at it and straight through it. He burst out the other end completely unharmed.

And quicker than the eye could catch, something shot forward and pierced through Lance's chest.

Croy landed and Lance just stared, completely in pain.

He looked down, at his chest. Blood oozed out, and what had torn through it was a silver scaled tail.

It was clear out the other side and a pointed tip the shape of a pyramid was what ended it.

The tail ripped out of him and retracted back to Croy.

"Well, good-bye," Croy said with a smile and a wave.

He turned towards the direction that the group of prisoners had gone and began to hurry along the way.

Lance was only able to fall forward and watch his world disappear…

…Forever…

---

**FLASHBACK**

"Lance?" Destiny said, getting the man's attention.

Lance skipped another rock over the surface of the dark lake.

"Yeah?" he said as he counted the skips.

"I've been worried lately," she said.

"About what?" Lance asked.

"What would happen to me if you died?" she answered.

Lance stared at her through the night and then smiled.

He walked over to her and sat down next her as she played with a piece of grass.

"You don't need to worry about that," Lance said.

"Why not?" Destiny asked.

"Because, I'll never die as long as you're around," Lance said. "After all, who'd keep you company if I died?"

"That's the point," Destiny said, bringing her knees close to her. "I don't want to share this with anyone else. So if you go, I'll be all alone and miserable, for the rest of eternity."

Lance looked at Destiny with a sad expression of understanding.

Since she was immortal, she could never die and would have to go on living, even past the point where most would've died long before.

"Destiny, would I do anything to make you miserable?" Lance asked.

"No, not really," Destiny answered.

"And me dying would cause you to be miserable, correct?" Lance asked.

"Yeah, it would," she answered.

"Well, there you have it," Lance said. "I simply won't die, because it would make you miserable and I would never do anything to make you miserable."

Destiny gave a short laugh and smiled at Lance.

"Your logic is a strange thing Lance," she said.

Lance smiled and got up, brushing his pants off.

"Well," he said, "I suppose now's as good of a time as any to turn in for the night."

He held out his hand to Destiny and she took it.

**END FLASHBACK**

---

The Earthon grabbed a piece of her skin on her palm, then pulled it. It formed into gauze as soon as it came away. She continued pulling until she had a sufficient pile, at which point the gauze tore away from her.

She wrapped the gauze around Bell's middle, to keep the blood from pouring out everywhere. As she did this, she transformed back into Destiny.

She finished wrapping and looked at Bell.

"Sorry," she said, "it's the best that I'll do for you though."

She stood up and began running in the same direction that the group of escapees had gone. Now that no one was watching, she was able to run at an abnormally quick speed. She should catch up to the group in—

Destiny stopped wide-eyed in her tracks.

There, not too far ahead of her, was a dragonite lying in a pool of blood. Destiny put her hands over her mouth and then quickly ran over to the dragonite.

She kneeled on the blood soaked ground, turned him over, and stared at the wound.

It was straight through the chest. There was no way…

"Lance!" she shouted as tears filled her eyes. "Lance, please, no!"

There was no reply.

She thrust her mind into his but there was nothing, which could only mean one thing…

"NO!" she screamed desperately, grabbing hold of him as best she could and holding him closely to her. "No… You can't die… You can't… Lance…"

Tears flooded down her cheeks.

This couldn't be happening… It couldn't… it…

She couldn't stop sobbing… crying.

"Please!" she shouted, "Please come back! I— I…"

"He's dead, he can't even consider your request," a voice said behind Destiny, unemotional.

Without even turning around, Destiny knew who it was.

"Fate," she nearly hissed.

She looked over her shoulder, eyes in a swollen glare.

"Oh, now you blame me?" Fate said. "Well, of anyone, you should blame Croy. He's the one who actually stabbed Lance."

Destiny's eyes widened. Then, after a moment, she looked back at the dead dragonite.

"Please," she said to Fate, "please, I'll make any deal you want. Just, please, let him live again. I don't want to live eternity alone."

"I'm not supposed to bring people back from the dead," Fate replied. "I could get in trouble, and why would I risk that for a bunch of little puppets? Besides, this makes things more interesting."

"Interesting?!" Destiny shouted, whipping around and standing up, a fire in her eyes, "Interesting?! You make it sound like we're simply a part of a movie that you watch for your own sick and twisted amusement!"

Fate silently stared at Destiny.

But only for a moment.

"Do you know how many people dream of being apart of an adventure?" Fate asked. "So many, including myself. But so many of those people never even get a small adventure. Nothing to call their own. But I have a chance to give someone else an adventure, so I'm not passing up that chance. And if this isn't an adventure, I don't know what is."

"I never asked for this," Destiny said, seething with hate.

"Yes, you did," Fate said. "You imagined this _exact_ world. Even I was there, making someone else miserable. I recall how that Fate was, in your daydreams, the avatar by which you communicated with your little imaginary world and that that Fate was just as manipulative as I am. In fact, my character is based on her. Of course, though, you never imagined the exact same things happening, but most of adventure is the surprise of not knowing what's next."

Destiny's fists shook with anger.

"I'll tell you exactly why I do what I do," Fate continued, "I manipulate, I twist people and things to my will, and I play helper to both sides because I want to watch something entertaining when I have nothing else to do.

"However, I also do this because I lack adventure in my own life, and I wish to give someone else the adventure I lack, regardless of whether others think that they are real or not. Or whether those people who have that adventure like it or not. After all, you all live within my own mind, my own realm, anyway," Fate said, finishing up.

"Your mind?" Destiny asked, confused.

"What? You think that what you're actually looking at is me? You're more of a fool than I thought. Was the Fate in your mind an actual character, or was she or not the avatar that you showed to your world, since you were unable to actually be there yourself?"

Destiny was silent for a moment. She bowed her head down and drew a jagged breath.

"But why?" Destiny asked. "Why did he have to die?"

Fate was silent for a moment, blankly staring at Destiny.

"Because, no one expects the author to kill one of her favorite characters," Fate answered with a hint of actual sadness drifting with her words.

Destiny fell to her knees.

"Please," she said, begging Fate. "Please bring him back to life!"

Fate looked down at Destiny, then turned around and began to walk away.

Leaving Destiny to mourn the loss of the person closest to her.

---


	5. Part 5

[Author's Note: Sorry that it's a long part, but I messed up when I'd copied the last part. Part 4 was actually supposed to be a little longer, but that's too late to fix now, I guess…

If you want a hint from me, take a break when you hit the fifth section—indicated by the "---" in between. That one is the last section for Part five; you'll notice it starts a little more than halfway through the story.

Oh, and more fight scenes here, by the way.

Anyway, I'll say something more at the end of Part 5, but for now…

((gets the party started))]

Part 5

Sally looked up at the sky.

"Oh brother," she said.

"What?" Anne asked as she stood beside Sally.

The group had stopped to catch their breath momentarily when Sally had made her statement.

"We got company, again," Sally said, quite annoyed.

Anne looked up as well. Something was headed there way, alright.

"What is it?" Anne asked.

"Looks like a dragonite," she answered, "And it's headed here extra fast."

Anne frowned.

"Is it Lance?" she asked.

"No, he's coming from a different direction than Lance would," Sally answered, shaking her head. "Well, here's hoping he's friendly. Either that or we can try running, but at the speed he's going, I doubt that's a good idea. We'd just waste energy."

Anne nodded in agreement.

"Best have the energy to take the enemy, than run and deplete it before he catches you," she said.

Anne then turned and faced the group.

"Okay everyone!" she shouted, "Listen up! There's a dragonite headed this way. We're not running though, and we're not to fight it until we find out whether it's friend of foe, understood?"

A few shouts of agreement, murmurs and nods came in reply.

"Good," Anne said.

She turned around and looked back up at the sky. The dragonite was nearly within range of landing near them. A faint hope arose in Anne that the dragonite would pass over them completely and leave the group alone.

After a few moments of nervous waiting, everyone watched as the dragonite landed.

"Alright, punk!" Sally said, stepping forward. "You better say why you're here, and you don't worry about it being pokémon speech, either. I can understand that perfectly fine."

"Just like the billboards!" Julius shouted happily.

Sally glared at her insane boyfriend.

"Julius, zip it," she said.

"Yes, pie!" he replied, giving Sally a salute.

Sally sighed and rolled her eyes.

And all the while, the dragonite just stared, blinking and confused, at the group.

Sally waited a moment, tapping her bird claw foot impatiently.

"Well?" she demanded.

"[Oh, um, right]," the dragonite said. "[Look, I've come to help.]"

He opened a messenger bag he had slung around his neck and began to dig around in it. Soon he produced a key card.

"[This'll unlock the trackers]," he said.

"Right, and I'm supposed to trust you, why?" Sally asked.

"[Look, I happen to know someone in the group you have there, and I just want to make sure that they get away]," the dragonite replied.

"Sally, what's it saying?" Anne asked.

"The card key it has there will unlock the trackers and that we can trust it because it knows someone who was a prisoner," Sally answered.

Anne looked at the dragonite. For a moment their eyes met, and Anne saw something. But the dragonite quickly cut her off from what she thought that she had seen.

Anne took a deep breath and then walked forward. She stood in front of the dragonite and put her wrists out in front of him.

The dragonite blinked, then nodded.

He grabbed her left wrist's tracker and ran the key card flat over the tracker. A small slit appeared and the dragonite ran the card through the slot.

All the trackers on Anne opened. The ones on her wrist fell to the ground, the other three loosened considerably and nearly slid to the ground themselves.

The dragonite went to remove the tracker around her neck, when Anne grabbed onto his hands.

"Ricky, I know it's you," she said.

The dragonite froze.

"A girl I met in the dungeon, her name is Destiny," Anne said, "she told me. She told me that she only knew of one thing working directly with Croy, a dragonite. I said that it couldn't be true, because I'd seen you as a human and that you were no dragonite. Then she told me what kind of experiment her friend Lance had been forced to endure, and that he could change into a human for little amounts of time, but it would make him worn and weary. The rest of the time, he was a dragonite. She also knew that the person working with Croy that was turned into a dragonite… he had a fiancée. Not very many people that were in the dungeon had a fiancé, need-the-less one that was working for Croy.

"Ricky, why didn't you tell me?" Anne asked, looking up at the dragonite's face.

The dragonite caught in her gaze for a moment, then looked away.

"Ricky, no matter what, I will still love you," Anne said. "After all, life always has changes in store for us. Little to big, we have to be there for each other. Marriage isn't about everything always staying the same, now is it?"

Anne let go of the dragonite's hands and his arms fell to his sides. She reached up and took the tracker off her own neck.

The dragonite looked at Anne, eyes full of grief.

"Ricky," she said.

The dragonite grabbed her and hugged her close to him.

Anne was taken by surprise for a moment, and then she smiled and wrapped her arms around the dragonite's neck.

"This is touching and everything, but these other people would like their trackers removed, I'm sure," Sally said.

The two of them separated, a little embarrassed, but both relieved.

Ricky took the key card and began to unlock the trackers on other people.

A fairly decent number of trackers had been unlocked, when Anne noticed Sally looking uneasy.

"Sally, what's wrong?" Anne asked.

Sally looked at Julius as he stared at the ground with great interest, crouched down.

"It's just, I have this bad feeling," Sally answered.

"About what?" Anne inquired.

"Julius," Sally relied.

"I don't see anything too harmful about a man who doesn't know a pencil from his nose, no offense," Anne said.

"None taken," Sally said. "It's just, I have a feeling that he's about to do something stu--"

Julius jumped up, finger pointed heavenwards.

"The author has commanded!" he shouted.

Suddenly, Anne, Sally, Espeon, and Ricky found themselves in a completely different area and with the other prisoners nowhere in sight, too.

"—Pid," Sally said finishing up, her face in a frown.

Ricky and Anne looked at each other. Sally, still frowning, looked around for a glimpse of her problemed boyfriend.

Instead, she caught sight of something else.

"Destiny?" Sally said.

Everyone turned and looked over at where Sally was staring.

There, kneeling on the ground, looking down at her hands, was Destiny. She was covered in blood. It covered her cheeks, where several smeared lines were because of the tears that had run down them; it covered her hands, arms, the front of her shirt, and the front of her pant legs. Her hands were quivering uncontrollably; her eyes wide, tears gathering at the edges, waiting to fall.

Everyone ran over to Destiny. Espeon reached her first, followed by Anne, then  
Sally, and last, Ricky; all of them looking troubled.

Anne knelt by Destiny's side.

"Destiny, what happened?" she asked.

Destiny's quivering hands slowly began to curl, and then, suddenly, she grabbed her own shoulders, hugging herself, closed her eyes, leaned forward, and began to cry.

"He's dead," she managed to get out, the pitch of her voice changing uncontrollably.

Everyone was silent for a moment.

"Lance?" Anne asked, hoping against all that she was wrong.

"Yes, he's dead," Destiny managed out in a small wail.

"Oh, honey, I'm so sorry," Anne said, reaching out her hand and putting her hand on Destiny's shoulder, farthest from her. Anne drew Destiny close and put her other hand on Destiny's cheek, brushing away the hair stuck to her face and comforting Destiny as a mother or sister would do.

For several moments, everyone was somber, faces long and sad. Of all of them, only Destiny and Espeon, who was rubbing her head against Destiny's upper arm in an attempt to comfort her trainer, had known Lance for a long time. The rest had only known him for at most several days. But all felt a great deal of sadness, if for no one but Destiny. Pity, if you will.

Then Sally looked around, expression full of worry.

"Look, I know that this isn't good timing and all," Sally said, looking at the group, "but where are Julius and the others?"

Everyone looked at Sally. No one spoke for a moment.

"[I'll fly above and see if I can spot them]," Ricky said spreading his wings, about to take flight.

"[Don't bother]," Espeon said, looking at Destiny, but speaking to Ricky. "[It's too late, there's nothing that you could do for them. All it would result in is your own capture.]

Everyone looked over at the little pokémon, whether because he or she understood, or because he or she was curious as to what had been said.

"What do you mean, 'too late'?" Sally asked, now a bit panicked.

"[They are all being captured at this moment by Croy]," the little pokémon answered, now looking at Sally. "[Any assistance would result in failure of the worst kind. If you stay, you would have more chance at rescuing them.]"

"Well I just can't sit here and wait while he kidnaps my boyfriend and all those other people!" Sally shouted in reply.

"Who?" Destiny asked in a cracked voice.

"Croy," Sally answered.

Destiny's eyes grew wide. Her expression then turned to that of hatred.

"I'm going," she said angrily in her scratched voice.

Anne let go of Destiny and both stood up, Anne after Destiny.

Sally put her hands on Destiny's shoulders.

"No, Espeon said that any attempt to save them would end in failure!" Sally said. "She said that we'd have a better chance if we waited."

"He killed Lance!" Destiny shouted, shoving Sally's hands off her shoulders. "Croy killed Lance! I want to kill that-- that--"

Her fists shook at her sides and tears ran down her cheek.

"But I can't… Thanks to that deal I made with stupid Fate," Destiny said. "I can't avenge him…"

Everyone stood silent.

And all watched as Destiny wept.

---

Croy watched from the foliage as the group looked around in confusion.

So Ricky had figured out that the prisoners had escaped and he'd come to save his bride to be, along with the other captives.

Such a shame that Ricky, that strange looking bird-woman, and a woman whom Croy was very sure was Ricky's fiancée had disappeared. Oh well, he'd just track them all down later.

For now, he'd just secure the rest of the group.

He took a disc shaped similarly to a miniature UFO out of his coat pocket and threw it hard. The disc fell into the middle of the crowd, nearly brushing a few people. Several people were staring at it, while others were trying to see where it'd come from.

Suddenly, a force field appeared around all of them. A couple of the people ran up to the wall and touched or smacked it. All withdrew in a cry of pain from being shocked.

Croy walked out of hiding spot.

He smirked at the panicking group of people, but mostly at the strange looking, half Kadabra, man who was sitting cross-legged and waving, with a mouth open grin, at the sky.

Croy took his radio off his belt.

"Bring it in, I've got all the prisoners minus one," Croy said into it.

"Did you manage to get the experiment back as well?" a voice asked. It was the team leader.

"Actually, I killed it," he said, "Ricky's also left, along with his fiancée."

"So you lost valuable items and gained some other ones," the team leader hissed. "I rather would've liked if you hadn't lost any."

"Actually," Croy said with a smirk, "I happened to have found something much more important than those two experiments combined…"

"Well, what is it?" the leader asked after a small pause.

"Does the experiment named Julius Carter ring a bell?" Croy asked.

Static filled the silence for several moments.

"I'm sending an aircraft," the voice said.

Croy smiled a sinister smirk.

"Copy that," he said into the radio.

---

It was night, and they all were sitting around the campfire. Two of them were feeling a loneliness they weren't used to. The other two were feeling a company they hadn't felt in a long while. And one was sleeping next to her trainer's side.

With an exception of the sleeper, all were wondering what would happen next.

Anne looked across the fire at Destiny. The girl seemed so empty now, so tired. It was hard not to feel sad for her.

"You going to be okay, Destiny?" Anne asked.

Destiny looked up at the woman.

"You know, I've spent weeks without seeing him while he was off training," she said. "It would feel a bit lonely, but it was something that I could live through, knowing that he would come back. But this time… This time the emptiness, the loneliness, it's much more painful. I know, this time, he's gone for good."

Silence filled the camp.

Anne opened her mouth to start to say something.

"And don't tell me that you're sorry, I already know that you are," Destiny said. "I know everyone is really sorry for me, but you guys don't even know the half of it. You guys… It wouldn't be so bad for you if you lost someone that was as close as he was to me…"

Silence again filled the camp.

This time, Sally was the one who broke it.

"And what makes you think that it would be easier on us?" she demanded.

Destiny looked over at Sally. Destiny's expression was hollow, but at the same time, full of a knowledge no one else possessed.

Espeon's ear twitched. Destiny looked at the sky ahead of her and closed her eyes.

"Now, no one that I know as a friend, or even an ally, knows my secret," Destiny said. "Only a couple others know, and they are no friends of mine. Far from, in fact.

"There is Croy, the woman that I defeated earlier today, if she's even still alive, and Fate, who none of you have probably met—which is good. Daemon knew, but he's dead now," Destiny continued, her eyes now opened, but still staring at the sky. "So now, I ask myself, 'Do I tell them, so that I have friends that know, or do I stay in silence about this ugly truth?' Personally, I think I'd like to keep it a secret, simply because I don't like people thinking me not human, but you, knowing me as a friend, would not, hopefully, see me no longer as human. Thus, I do not tell you, being at war within myself, and thus, by not making a decision, I have made the decision to not tell you.

"The decision to not tell you my truth," Destiny said, finishing her speech and looking down at the other three people there.

Silence filled the air, no one quite having followed Destiny's monologue.

"Wait, you mean that Lance knew something about you that the rest of us don't?" Sally asked. "Well, I mean, of course he did, but I mean something that's obviously big."

"Yes," Destiny answered, "And I don't know whether I should tell you guys or not."

"Look, why don't you just tell us, and we'll tell you whether or not you should've told us, how about that?" Sally offered.

Destiny looked at Sally and blinked. She then looked down at Espeon and gave the little pokémon a shake.

Espeon looked up at her trainer.

"Should I tell them?" she asked Espeon.

Espeon sent a wave of emotions to Destiny, who nodded in reply.

"Wait, I thought that you said that none of your friends knew, but Espeon seems to know," Sally said.

"I was excluding my pokémon, know it all," Destiny said.

"Well, are you going to let us now, or are you going to let us sit here and wonder what on earth your riddling means?" Anne asked.

Destiny looked at Anne, and then sighed. She then stood up.

Destiny stretched her hand in front of her and summoned her elemental double sword. At each end of the decorated pole, the two curved blades glistened in the firelight, the right blade curving upward, the left blade curving downward.

"First of all, this is my elemental double sword," she said. "With it, I may control the elements. But what happens next is the most interesting part."

She put the blade to her chest. Everyone except Espeon, who'd fallen back to sleep, stood up, ready to stop Destiny from suicide. But before anything could be done, Destiny thrust the blade into her chest.

Everyone who was standing stared, mouths gaping. Destiny pulled the blade out of her chest, but not a single drop of blood came. Everyone stared at where there should have been a wound, but not even Destiny's clothes were torn there.

Both of Destiny's hands fell to her side, and the double sword disappeared.

Destiny looked at the three of them, all shocked at what they'd just seen.

Ricky then remembered something and blinked. He'd seen something like that before, with Croy!

"I'm an Earthon," Destiny said. "I cannot die, save one secret way. I can look like whomever or whatever I please, which is how, Sally, I was able to sneak into the team's facility. My DNA code changes as well, so it's impossible to tell by DNA if I'm me, or someone else. I can change my shape, height, anything. I can feel physical pain, or I cannot. In fact, the clothing I'm wearing now, is actually unconnected skin. When I told Lance that, he told me that he really didn't need to know that and that it was a little too much information. It took him a while to grasp the concept that it was the same as any clothing that anyone else would wear, like wool, only not as itchy. Same kind of ideal and all…"

For a moment, silence stood over everyone. Destiny, because she'd mentioned Lance, and the others because they'd never encountered anything of this sort before.

Destiny let out a deep, sad breath and sat down.

"[Sally, ask her if Croy's the same kind as she is]," Ricky said.

"Destiny, is Croy the same as you, Earthen, or whatever?" Sally relayed for Ricky.

"Yes, so was Daemon, whom Croy's a clone of," Destiny answered, "and it's unfortunately so. And it's Earth-ON, not Earthen."

"Yeah, sorry," Sally said.

There was another silence.

"Well, now you know why it's worse for me. You guys, no matter how long the pain lasts, will eventually die and rest peacefully. I, on the other hand, must live forever with this pain… This horrible hurt," Destiny said, gazing at the fire.

"I… had no idea," Anne said.

"So then, exactly how old are you?" Sally asked, trying to change the subject to something a little more light-hearted.

"I'll be turning a hundred-and-eight this year," Destiny answered.

Everyone awake stared at Destiny.

"Wait, Lance told me that you guys met when you first started training," Sally said. "If that were the case, then how could he have looked so young? Did he have some sort of eternal youth thing going on?"

Destiny's gaze fell to the floor.

"No, I gave him youth myself, from me," Destiny replied, "but it's a process I really don't want to share with anyone else. My… tutor advised against it."

"Oh, well, I was just wondering," Sally said.

For a little while silence once again filled the air.

"Well, I'm going to go to bed now," Anne said. "Who else is sleepy? Last one up has to put out the fire, you know."

Ricky backed a little away from the fire and lay down, facing the flames. Anne looked at him with a smirk.

"Men will do anything to get out of work," she said, knowing full well that he could hear her. She looked at Sally and then Destiny. "Well, good night."

She lay down next to Ricky and faced away from the fire. She gave a smile as she looked at Ricky, and then closed her eyes to try and sleep.

After several minutes, Sally decided to turn in. About a minute later, Destiny waved her hand at the fire and watched as it quickly died in the movement.

She didn't mind the darkness; it was a strange comfort to her, as it had always been.

Destiny lay down and then began to silently cry. The darkness was the only witness to Destiny's tears.

---

Dr. Peterson walked into the room and over to the coffee machine. He poured himself a cup and added some milk and sugar.

Prof. Richardson was sitting at one of the tables, drinking her own cup. Dr. Peterson walked over to the table and sat down as well.

"Hey Sam," Prof. Richardson said with a smile.

"Hi Emily," Dr. Peterson replied. "So, how's it been down at the bioengineering center?"

"Pretty crazy," Emily answered. "I thought that I'd figured out this antidote, just turned out to be a stabilizer. Though I suppose it's better than the alternative. How about things in your neck of the woods?"

"We got in an old experiment," Sam Peterson answered, sounding very excited. "A guy named Croy brought him in. Boy, I haven't seen anything like this Julius fellow. The guy's brain activity is completely irregular. We've been trying to get him to transform to see if there's a certain pattern to changes in mental frequencies. From what I've seen from prior recorded observations, it's not a very simple pattern at all. We've been working all night comparing different status elements from other experiments and unchanged variables. We were just comparing his brain frequencies to that of a normal psychic's, and let me tell you, the two stats were almost completely different. It was mind-boggling! Imagine the things that could come from being able to understand what makes this particular specimen so powerful!"

"Wow, this thing sounds interesting," Emily Richardson said, "you'll have to show me this, 'amazing specimen' of yours. He sounds like he's one in a million."

"Well, it has to be. If he weren't, then I wouldn't have been up all night and into the morning working on trying to figure out what exactly does make him one in a million. This Julius experiment… Understanding him could mean understanding things about the human mind we'd never dreamed of knowing!"

"Careful Sam, don't fling your cup around like that, you'll spill coffee everywhere," Emily said with a smirk.

"Oh, right," Dr. Peterson said, calming down a little. "I just get too excited when I think of the possibility of discovering something this important."

Prof. Richardson sighed.

"I suppose that's the reason we've all sold our souls to this team," she said. "We all wanted to learn new and important things. But our curiosity was always restrained, either legally, or financially. So we all ran to this team, hoping on making the discovery that would change the world."

"Well, it's not like we could do much else except go mad from our desire to learn," Dr. Peterson replied.

"No, but no one understands that about us, so they look down on us for what we do," Emily said. "Sad, isn't it?"

Dr. Peterson gave a half-smile and sighed.

"Well, I best get going," he said, standing up.

"Hey, you mind if I stop by for a moment to see the experiment?" Prof. Richardson asked.

"Not at all," Sam said.

Emily Richardson stood up and the two of them walked out of the room together.

---

"I wish you would've gotten at least a little sleep," Sally said to Destiny.

"I'm fine," Destiny said, "it's not like it's going to affect my health or something."

"No, but it would've moved your mind away from places it needs to stay away from at this point in time," Sally said. "Why do you think that I went to sleep last night, even with Julius being kidnapped?"

Destiny looked at the ground and said nothing.

Everyone had been trying to cheer her up all morning, but to no success. The only time she would smile at all was when she thought about a time that she and Lance did something together. But that would only lead her to more tears in remembering that she would no longer share any experiences with him.

"Girl, get yourself together!" Sally said, standing up and looking down at Destiny as the girl sat on the ground. "Tell you what, as soon as Ricky, Espeon, and Anne get back from washing dishes, we're heading to that base, kicking down their doors and rescuing Julius. Then, when Croy comes after us, you can beat the living snot out of that sucker, huh?"

Destiny looked at the ground to her side now, not too sure what to say. It would be nice for her if she could beat Croy to a lifeless pulp, but that would be unlikely. And even if she could, she wouldn't be able to because of that deal that she'd made with Fate…

Sally sighed.

"Okay, get up," she commanded.

Destiny looked up at Sally with a puzzled expression.

"Get up!" Sally commanded again.

Destiny shot up, not wanting to make Sally angry.

The two girls looked eye-to-eye, straight at each other. Neither blinked, both had clenched fists and breathed sharply.

"You need to stop feeling sorry for yourself," Sally said to Destiny. "It's not nice at all for you to be going around pouting like a two year old. You act as if everyone in the world is dead and you're the only one left."

"You don't understand!" Destiny shouted. She took a deep breath and fought back her tears. "I left my entire world behind for him. My family, my home, my old friends, and everything I had known I left for him. I had once been a normal human being, nothing super about me. No Earthon powers, no psychic powers, and no elemental double sword. In fact, we didn't even have pokémon. It was just a made-up anime and game on my planet. But regardless, I had a great life, at least compared to most people. My parents were wonderful. My sister was one of my best friends. My brother was annoying, but I could deal with him. I had several friends who I'd give my life for in a heartbeat and of whom I knew would do the same for me. I was a straight "A" student. My family was no where near death. My mom was a housewife, so she was almost always there for us kids. My father had a respectable job that made fairly good wages. Life had its little ups and downs, but usually nothing real bad. Yet I put that all aside for him, for Lance. Now, not only have I lost all of that, but I've also lost him. I mean, I never complained about not having any of those wonderful things anymore. Granted I did sometimes ask why he and I had to go through such hard times, but so long as he was there, I could live through it… as long as he was there with me…"

Destiny's voice had become more distorted as she talked and eventually she had broken off, tears brimming at the edge of her eyes.

Sally took hold of one of Destiny's hands, brought it up to her, and gave it a pat.

"Kid, you have issues," she said with a sad sort of half-smile.

Suddenly, the two of them were teleported. Sally let go of Destiny's hand and Destiny and her both looked around, confused.

"Saaallllyyyyyy…" a voice said, soft and droned out, like a sick child calling for its mother.

Sally turned to where the voice was coming from.

"Julius!" she exclaimed. Sally run up to him.

The poor man was strapped to a table that was tilted, making his feet closer to the ground then his head. He was topless and had suction cups and wires connected to his torso, arms, neck, and head. Around his forehead like a headband was some sort of metal gizmo with wires poking from it here and there.

All the wires flowed away and into the three walls nearest his head and sides. They were all in a room that was strangely large for one table. It was covered in square tiles about a foot in length and height that were multiple shades of red that circulated within each of the tiles. But on one wall, about two stories high, was a long, horizontal, black window, such as the ones in the police station interrogation rooms.

Destiny noticed this and glared. She looked at Sally who was busy removing the suction cups from her boyfriend.

"We're probably going to have company within the next couple seconds," Destiny stated in an almost normal tone.

Sally threw the strange head gizmo off of Julius's head. Then, almost on cue to Destiny's prediction, a group of guards burst in.

"Great," Destiny muttered under her breath.

She ran at the group of people pouring in. She jumped and kicked one of the men in the chest, shoving him into another person. The effect was domino; several guards quickly ended up on the floor. Destiny turned sharply and decked another guy, sending him flying and then quickly turned and elbowed another man.

"Move out of my way!" yelled Destiny, grabbing a man by the head and throwing him out the door.

Yet strangely, none of the guards fired a single shot of their weapons.

Destiny noticed this, but she soon figured out why no one was shooting. In fact, there were probably two reasons.

One, the room that Sally and Destiny were in was probably expensive. Two, they didn't want to harm Julius.

"What's going on here?" a male voice demanded.

A couple of the guards turned and looked back at the door, where the voice had come from. Destiny seized the opportunity and zipped at one of the distracted guards. She grabbed the automatic gun and shoved his side with her foot, putting him off balance so that his arm flew up and she was able to get the strap away from him as well as the gun connected to it.

She then ran out the door and grabbed the nearest scientist she could see, a woman standing near a male scientist. Both scientists gaped with horror as Destiny brought the gun tip to the woman's chin.

"Everyone back away now!" she shouted in command. "If you don't, I'll blow her head off!"

"Emily!" the male scientist said, fear wringing his voice. He looked at the guards. "Do as she says. Now!"

Everyone lowered their weapons and stepped back. The male scientist backed away several steps.

"Sally! Hurry and get out here before the reinforcements get here!" Destiny shouted.

Sally ran out the door, Julius over her shoulder like a sac of potatoes.

"Okay, let's go!" Destiny said. She ran with the hostage to the hallway.

They ran down the hall until they reached the elevator door. Destiny then stopped, realizing that getting out of there using the elevator would probably be impossible since they would more then likely just stop it from getting to the exit. Sally made a halt behind Destiny.

"What's wrong?" Sally asked.

"We don't have a way out," Destiny answered, voice quivering.

Destiny would have been able to get away, but with Sally there… The scenario was completely different.

"Potatoes… Need potatoes…" Julius droned weakly.

"Julius! This isn't the time to be talking about food!" Sally yelled to her half-conscious boyfriend.

"Destiny… give me… potatoes…" he said in reply.

Suddenly guards filled in the three hallways that led to the elevator. Destiny jumped in-between the group in the hallway straight in front of the elevators and Sally and Julius. She tightened her grip on the hostage and swallowed. She really didn't want to have to harm anyone.

She took a step back and bumped into Julius's head.

"Thank you for the potatoes," he said.

And before anyone could ponder what that meant, all four of them found themselves outside the team hideout.

Sally, Destiny, and the hostage stood blinking, puzzled at what had just occurred.

Destiny let go of the hostage and lowered the gun. The woman took a few steps forward and then turned around.

Destiny then blinked. She recognized her! It was the woman who said that she'd nearly found the cure for Ricky.

"You're Emily!" she exclaimed.

The woman blinked.

"Yeah, how'd you know?" she asked, a bit confused.

"Well, we've met before, but I highly doubt that you remember me," Destiny answered. "Umm, and sorry about the whole hostage thing, but we didn't have much else of an option. We needed an easy way to get Sally's boyfriend and I did as fast of thinking as I could."

"Eh, that's okay, I guess," Emily replied. "If it was to save her boyfriend, I can understand. After all, I am a big romance freak. You know, sweep you off your feet and stuff."

"Gee, I hate to break up your little tea party and all, but we better get back," Sally said.

"Hold on, Sally, this woman could have Ricky's cure!" Destiny blurted out.

"Ricky? Isn't that the man-turned-dragonite that works under Croy?" Emily asked.

"Not any more. We got his fiancée out and he came along. Though we still lack his cure," Destiny answered.

"What? That's great! I mean… You know, working for the team they got away from, I should probably be feeling less happy…" Emily said, looking as though she felt very silly.

"It's alright, I highly doubt that the team's going to find out," Destiny said.

"Well, that's nice," Emily replied. "Hey, you wouldn't mind if I came along, would you? I did something I probably shouldn't have, but I guess it's lucky I did."

Emily put her hand into her pocket and lifted out of it two vials.

"I was transporting these to another lab when I got side-tracked. Okay, well, the coffee smelled real good, so I thought I'd get me some, but that's beside the point. Anyway," Emily continued, "I was bringing the samples to lab to analyze what had been done wrong in the original solution. See, instead of curing the subject, this only stabilized the transformation. As far as we can see, this will allow the guy that got turned dragonite to transform between dragonite and human form whenever he wants to."

"If you ask me, that's actually better than finding a cure," Sally commented.

"Well, that's not what the higher ups had asked for, so we decided it would be best to present both of the solutions instead of one that was a positive goof-up," Emily replied.

"Hey, that actually makes some sense…" Sally said.

"Thank you."

"Alright then, we need to be heading off now," Destiny said. "I'll just teleport us to camp and—"

"Oh, but I can't let you do that," a voice said among the trees bordering the clearing that the group had been standing near the edge of.

Destiny turned to face the voice.

She knew who it was… all too well.

"Croy," she said, her voice laced with disgust.

The man walked out of the shadows and into full view. He wore a smirk like he'd been born with it, or like he just wanted to irk someone on.

"You guys are going now," Destiny said to Sally (who was still hauling Julius) and Emily without even glancing their way.

She then teleported them off to the site where Anne and Ricky should have been waiting.

All the while, the two just stared at each other; Croy with his smug little smile and Destiny with hate in her eyes.

"So… Isn't this pleasant?" Croy asked.

Destiny glared at Croy.

He'd killed Lance, and he was going to pay... Some how, she would make him pay and now was as good a time as any.

"Well, we're finely here, face-to-face, ready to kill the other in a fight to the death," Croy said. He then threw head upward and laughed.

"What's so funny?" Destiny sneered.

Croy straightened up and looked at Destiny with a grin.

"What's funny is that we're immortal, yet still ready to kill the other," Croy said. "Don't you find that funny as well?"

"Freakin' hilarious," Destiny said, not sounding the least bit amused.

She then held her right hand out to her side, parallel to the ground. Her elemental double sword appeared and she grabbed onto it.

Croy gave a sinister grin and held his hand in front of him; a katana teleported into his hands.

"I suppose that I should warn you that this sword is laced with Earthin's bane," he said.

"And I suppose I should tell you that Daemon used a sword laced with that same poison as well, and it ended up being the death of him," Destiny said.

"Yes, but you could kill Daemon," Croy said.

Destiny frowned.

Was Croy being cocky, or did he know that she'd made that deal with Fate about not killing him?

Well, she might as well get a thrashing in on him anyway.

Destiny flashed her sword in front of her. A blade of fire shot out of it. Croy quickly teleported out of the way. Destiny jumped up, using her telepathy to boost her away from a near miss from Croy's blade. She twisted around in midair and shot a sphere of psychic energy at Croy using her left hand. Croy took the hit, but what damage it did was quickly erased.

Croy jumped up after her and came at her from the side. She blocked his hit with her double sword and shoved it away. She then countered by shoving one of the blades of her weapon into his gut and propelling him downward with a column of water shot from the blade that had been stuck into him.

He slammed into the ground with intense force. Destiny quickly landed and took a deep breath and went back into a defensive pose.

Suddenly, something broke through the earth around Destiny and wrapped around her ankles and wrists.

Croy then stood, grinning. A tail protruded from behind him and into the ground. His tail was what was holding her wrists and ankles. Croy had dug his tail underground, split it into four, and then caught her when she wasn't expecting it.

Croy stooped and picked up his katana. Destiny frowned and then attempted to teleport out of the hold.

She couldn't.

"Try as you might, but now that the band I just slipped on you has dissolved, for the next twelve hours, you won't be able to teleport," Croy said, noticing her panic.

Destiny frowned. An anti-teleportation band. He must have slipped it on her wrist using his tail.

Then she would just have to do it the good old-fashioned way. She let her double sword disappear.

Destiny broke the connection to the cells in her hands. Her wrists and hands began to fall apart in a silver color. She then drew her arms quickly above her head, signaling the cells from her hands and wrists to follow. Her hands drew back into place. She then jumped up, disconnecting the cells in her feet at just the right time, then drawing the cells back to her ankles while she was free. She pushed up using her telepathy.

Luckily the black band that had disappeared by now only got rid of teleportation and weakened her telepathy by barely.

Croy drew his tail back to him and then shot up at Destiny. He put his hand up and shot a psychic wave at her. She covered her face with her arms. The slight cuts delivered to them quickly healed and Destiny dropped her arms to see Croy right in front of her.

Destiny quickly dropped towards the ground, avoiding his swing by a mere hair. She flew at the ground and landed with Croy right behind her. He swung down, but Destiny evaded by jumping to the side several yards away.

Suddenly there was a flash of silver and Croy's tail wrapped around her middle, pinning her arms to her sides. The tail end split in two, one end going up and the other going down. Before Destiny even realized it, she was surrounded in a cocoon made from Croy's tail.

Not exactly the situation she wanted to be in.

Destiny squirmed against inside the cocoon, unable to break free. Not a single crack was between the layers of the tail that had encased her.

Then, a crack appeared at her sight level. She saw the end off Croy's blade, laced with that poison, Earthin's Bane. Her heart skipped a beat, she didn't have the time to think of anything expect that she would finally be able to sleep...

But then, something white blocked Destiny's view. She heard the din of metal against metal.

The slot of light closed. The cocoon began to constrict tightly around her. She grimaced and then thought quickly.

She summoned her elemental double sword and squeezed it tightly. Its blades began to glow with heat, one across part of her chest and her left shoulder, the other, partly on her lower thigh, near her knee.

She put a psychic barrier around herself, then turned the notch up on the blaze. The fire encased the rest of the room left in the cocoon then expanded. The casing stretched and bubbled as the air filled with fire and expanded. Then Destiny added one last burst of energy to the fire, making it grow with such a sudden quickness, that the casing blew away, torn to shreds.

The end of Croy's tail reformed and then retracted back to him. Destiny stared on at him for a moment, seeing his face twisted in a frown, not from pain, but having lost his prey. Croy's eyes constantly wandered quickly from Destiny to the other figure that had parried his attacks.

Then, Destiny glimpsed over at her savior. He was several feet away from Croy, his side facing Destiny. He was poised to guard from any attacks Croy might deliver.

He had white, spiked hair, though it was not white from age. His eyes were dark, and his eyebrows were in a frown full of seriousness.

His outfit was somewhat peculiar. For a shirt, he wore a martial art type outfit. It was sleeveless, and went down to his feet, coming to a corner at the front and back of the garment. A slit formed in it from his hips down, making it easy to move about and deliver kicks. The garment was white, save about a half an inch of golden colored trim that followed the seams. Then the strangest part of the garment was the two pieces of cloth about an inch and a half wide that started about a half inch from where the golden trim was on his shoulder and just below his collar bone was. They took a large arch above his head on both sides and went back down to about halfway down his back, supported by nothing but a mysterious force. The pieces went into a "V" at each end and had about a quarter inch trim of golden color. He had on a pair of white, loose, Arabian style pants, and a pair of white boots that the pants tucked into.

But the most impressive thing that he was sporting was his sword. The blade was katana like in appearance. It shone bright, polished to perfection. And the guard was beautiful and intricate, made of pieces of silver colored metal pieces that twisted into a wonderful, but efficient, guard piece.

Though Destiny hardly cared at all about his clothing or the like of, for she instantly recognized him. Her heart swelled and a wide smile crossed over Destiny's face. She was breathing heavily and tears were beginning to form in her eyes, though she had a hard time believing them, for she never thought ever again see what she was seeing.

"Long time no see," she said to the man.

The man looked out of the corner of his eyes and smiled at her.

"Yeah, I suppose so," he replied. "How have things been going?"

"Let's just say that seeing you again, Romo, is the best thing that's happened to me for a while," she answered.

"That bad, eh?" he responded, looking back at Croy, a grin plastered on his face. "Tell you what, you can tell me all about it once we beat this guy's head in."

Destiny nodded and looked at Croy, going into her fighting position.

"You dismiss me too easily," Croy said, holding his katana into a one handed fighting stance. "I was able to kill Lance with no problem. In fact, even just toying with him, I had to be careful not to break him to pieces."

"Please, I don't need to hear your gloating about murdering Lance, I already know what happened," Romo said.

Suddenly, Destiny shot up into the air and quickly hovered above Croy. She spun her elemental double swords, causing a pillar fire to shoot from it in full blast force. Croy quickly erected a psychic shield around himself to defend against the blow. The fire curved around the shield, scorching the ground around him. The blast of flames stopped and Destiny landed on the ground, feet first. Croy's barrier disappeared and he turned to look at Destiny.

Romo, taking advantage of the situation, rushed at Croy's back, ready to strike him across. Unfortunately for Romo, Croy remembered that he was against two opponents just in time to turn around and block Romo's strike. Romo jumped back and the three players stood silently, watching and waiting for an opening.

"You know," Croy said after a few moments of silence, "this is quite an unfair match here. Two versus one is hardly fair at all."

There was a moment of silence and then Romo was the first to speak up.

"He's right. Destiny, could you please get behind me? I have a personal score to settle with this guy," he said.

"Look, I have more of a chance of beating this guy then you do, Romo. I should—" she started to say, but then Romo had given Destiny a grin and winked at her.

She frowned in disagreement for a moment and then sighed.

"Alright," she finally said.

She quickly floated over using her telepathy to about fifty feet behind Romo and then stuck her double sword in the ground. She sat down cross-legged and crossed her arms in a sort of pout at not being able to fight Croy.

"Please, you act as though I killed your brother or something," Croy said.

"Actually, in a matter of speaking, you did," Romo relied.

Then both Croy and Romo faced one another, this time both with their own sword in their right hand, which hung loose at their own side. Romo was the first to go into a fighting stance, Croy copying the movement. Then, both rushed at each other.

They met, and metal clashed against metal, sparks ascending into the air. Croy swept his foot underneath Romo in hopes of knocking him down. Romo, however, jumped into the air with a back flip and landed a few feet from where he had been standing. He then lunged at Croy, who had regained a standing stance but was not on guard. Romo swept at Croy with his blade from left to right. Croy jumped back, but not quickly enough, for he received a cut to his stomach. Croy landed on his feet, his wound healing instantly.

Both were back on guard, expecting another attack from the other.

"Well, it seems that you're just as weak as Lance was," Croy said with a grin. "Perhaps I should just kill you now and save me the boredom."

Romo gave a half smile grin.

"You really didn't know as much about Lance as you thought you did," Romo said.

Croy lifted an eyebrow in confusion. No, not confusion, so much as a curiosity as to what he may have overlooked.

"And what makes you say that?" Croy asked.

"Why should I tell you?" Romo said with a smug grin.

Croy then blinked, his facial expression actually held a bit of surprise.

"How...?" Croy said in a slight disbelief.

"Can't read my mind, can you?" Romo said, his mouth now in a full sized grin.

Croy frowned. His kind did not like to be messed with in such ways like Romo was doing to him, which is part of the reason that he never liked Bell.

Next, Romo held his sword in front of him, parallel to the ground. He closed his eyes, then after a moment, his sword glowed with a white light, then morphed into a white staff. The glow died down, revealing that the staff to be perfectly straight, except for the knotted part at the end. Though, the knot was not naturally shaped at all, for it seemed more like pieces of the staff had been flattened out and woven around together randomly and intricately.

Croy's eyes narrowed and a curiosity as to what was going on crept into their light.

Destiny's eyes in contrast widened with recognition. Her elemental double sword disappeared and she unfolded her arms and buried her hands into the ground, holding on for dear life.

Perhaps if Croy had been smart enough to glance at Destiny and see what she was doing, then he would have been more cautious about what perhaps would take place. But instead, he kept his eyes trained on Romo and the newly formed staff that he held.

Then, Romo's eyes opened and his expression became as serious as it had ever been.

"Perhaps it is nearly impossible to kill you, Croy," Romo said, "but I can make due for that."

Romo then turned his staff and struck its bottom against the ground.

Suddenly, a dark hole appeared only a few feet behind Croy. Wind raced towards its entrance, being pulled in by some mysterious force. Trees swayed and thrashed in the pull of this newly formed portal.

Croy put up his hands in front of himself, blocking the sting from the wind. Romo stood still and gazed like a man who was about to punish a disobedient child.

Croy, having a thought that perhaps this man was not controlling the wind but something else, took a glance over his shoulder. His eyes widened the moment that he saw the thing that was meant to be his doom. He then looked forward again and noticed that Romo was walking towards him.

"You want to know something about me?" he asked in a voice loud enough to be heard clearly above the wind that the gaping hole was creating. "Well, then I shall tell you."

He then stopped about a foot in front of Croy, who had put down his arms from his face.

Romo then leaned forward and told Croy what it was about Romo that Croy did not know.

Romo took a step back. Croy looked at the man in disbelief.

Then Romo grinned and slammed the knotted end of his staff into Croy's gut, shoving Croy off the ground and into the black portal.

"NO!" Croy shouted as he flew into hole.

But before Croy could do anything, Romo brought the bottom of his staff to the ground, and the portal closed.

Then, from the darkness that surrounded Croy, shackles wrapped around his wrists, feet, and neck, securing him to an imaginary wall.

Croy, for perhaps the first time in his life was in a state of shock and panic. True fear.

His breaths were quick and heavy as he fought against the shackles, but he could not get away. Even reforming his hand to slip away did not work.

After a little while, he stopped struggling. It was at this moment that he could hear a woman chuckling in the darkness.

Then he saw her.

Fate.

She was the only thing seeable in the dark, gruesome expanse. She stood several feet from Croy and wore a smirk on her face. Her hands were clasped behind her back and her head was slightly tilted, as a puppy's is when it is amused with something.

Croy stared silently at her, his eyes narrow, not quite sure what to think.

"Welcome to the Nether. A dimension of nothingness, but at the same time, a dimension that has everything," Fate said, "except, of course, your freedom."

"Get me out," Croy said.

"Oh, I'm afraid I can't do that," Fate said. "You see, it took me quite a while to think of a way to get you out of the way without having you get killed."

"You mean that you're behind this!?" Croy demanded angrily.

"In a round about sort of way, I suppose I am," Fate answered, "Though it doesn't really matter who's responsible now I suppose."

"You—Once I get my hands on you—!" Croy began.

"You'll do what? Bore me to death?" Fate said. "Look, buster, if it's anyone's fault that you're here, it's your own."

"Oh? And exactly how would that work?" Croy asked.

"You remember how I made that deal with you about giving you that info you needed for you letting Destiny get away? Do you also remember how you insisted on getting a little extra something? Do you also recall how I said that I supposed I could help you get a further up on the team's totem pole? Well, those parts about helping you get further up on your boss's liked members list was getting in the way of my happy ending. You would have to have Julius, Sally, Destiny, Anne, and Ricky in your little paws _again_ in order for that to happen. Now, I didn't necessarily go back on my word about helping you get higher status through favor, because you did get there by getting Julius. However, if you didn't get at least someone back, you were going to fall from the spotlight, which would mean that I couldn't let that happen. So, in order to compromise that situation, you either had to die in glory, or everyone had to think you had died.

"So then I decided that this was the best option," Fate said, finishing up her speech.

"You double-crossing—" Croy began to say.

"Nope, not double crossing. I made a deal and I kept it. Though, I suppose next time you won't try to make more of a deal than I offer, now will you?" Fate said with a smirk.

Fate then snapped her finger and disappeared, leaving Croy alone to ponder what was to possibly never be done.

[A.N.: It was the last section that ends up being the doozy, eh? That was the section that really threw me off when I was organizing the different parts.

Well, congrats! I only have one more part to post before the ending! Don't you just feel the excitement? I know I do.

Man, I remember how easily all these fight scenes I did in Parts 4 and 5 came to me. I'm so proud of them that I could cry tears of joy. Stick around for Part 6, the all-informing, last section! Heck, there might even be a nice surprise for you guys, since you've been so patient and all. I will admit that there are no fight scenes, but you will learn a lot from the last part.

So here we go, and have a Happy New Year!]


	6. Part 6

Part 6: The Happy Endings

As soon as the portal shut, Destiny fell back a little ways and took a deep breath.

Romo sat down and looked ahead as his staff faded away. Destiny stood up and ran over to him.

"Romo!" she said as she ran. She soon stopped and knelt by him, "Romo, are you alright?"

Romo looked at her as he took his heavy breaths.

"Yeah, to a certain degree," he said.

Destiny threw her arms around his neck.

"I thought I'd never get to see you again," she said.

"Yeah that goes for both of us," Romo said, hugging her with one arm and using the other to support himself.

Destiny let go and sat back up straight. She looked at Romo, smiling at him, like one does to an old friend that they haven't seen for a while.

"Sheesh, being an interdimensional guardian can take quite a toll on someone," Romo said.

"No, you're just a wimp," Destiny said.

"That would explain how you were able to beet me when I was trying to return you to your world," Romo replied. "You and your possibility at causing a negative phenomenon."

"No, I'm just good at whooping butt," Destiny commented with a grin.

"Sure ya are," Romo said in a sarcastic tone.

"I am, too," Destiny said.

"Right, then you about to get your face stabbed was just a figment of my imagination," Romo replied.

"No, I had the situation perfectly under control," Destiny said. "In fact, I wanted him to kill me! After all… Life without you or Lance…"

Romo looked at Destiny with pity in his eyes.

"Oh, by the way, what'd you say to Croy before giving him that shove off?" Destiny asked, quickly changing gears before she got too worked up.

"Heh, wouldn't you like to know?" Romo asked in reply, teasing Destiny.

"Yes, I would!"

"I told him 'Thanks for the candy,'" Romo replied in a hushed, yet sort of creepy voice.

"Right," Destiny said, looking and sounding as though she wasn't buying what he said at all.

"Eh, ya got me," Romo said with a grin.

"So what'd you tell him?" Destiny asked again in a persistent sort of manner.

"About the whole bonded thing," Romo answered.

"Really? No wonder he looked so shocked," Destiny said.

Romo leaned close to Destiny's face. Both locked eye and smiled.

"Destiny," Romo began. His smile faded and he looked at the ground, "I know that you and Lance really… you know… But since he's gone, you don't think that you could give me another chance, do you?"

Romo looked back up at Destiny.

She was smiling in that way that made it seem as though she thought he was messing with her.

"Are you asking me to be your girlfriend, AGAIN?" Destiny asked, the same smile plastered on her face.

"Yes! Yes, I am!" Romo replied, sitting up straight. He then wavered a bit and had to put his hands down for support.

"Guess I'm still feeling it from that opening," he said. "Um, but seriously, you should consider it. You don't know what you're missing."

"Thanks, but I think I'll pass," Destiny replied.

"So you won't go out with me?" Romo asked, a slight tone of sadness in his voice. He gave her a pathetic puppy-dog face.

"No, not really," Destiny answered. She looked to the corner of her eyes and sighed. "After all, you and Lance aren't anything alike. You even tried to kill me before; Lance had to stop you."

"Well then, my love, since you have declined my offer, yet again, permit me one last thing to say," Romo said, bowing his head and not being very serious-like at all.

"Sure, why not?" Destiny replied, looking back up at Romo with a grin.

"Fate said to tell you that you can't find Lance's cure," Romo said.

"Well, I don't find anything wrong with that deal at all," Destiny said, grinning.

Romo glowed with a white light that broke away like shattered glass a couple seconds latter, revealing a different person all together.

Lance grinned fully at Destiny.

"Well, jee, I'm flattered," Lance said.

Tears began to fill Destiny's eyes. She then threw her arms around Lance, nearly knocking him over. Tears of joy flowed down her cheeks uncontrollably. Lance put his one arm around her back, closed his eyes, and smiled, happy to be back with Destiny once again.

"And sorry about Romo hitting on you," Lance said.

"I thought you were gone forever," Destiny said through her tears, ignoring his apology.

"Come on, Des, you should know me better than that," he said. "Would I ever really leave you alone like that?"

"No... No, I suppose you wouldn't," Destiny said.

"Hey, Des?" Lance asked.

"Yeah?" Destiny replied.

"Do you know what I was thinking the moment before I died?"

"No, what?"

Lance moved his arm from Destiny's back. She let go of him and sat up, taking it as an indication that Lance wanted to see her face. Lance sat up cross-legged, facing Destiny and getting better support.

"The last thought that I remember thinking before my world went blank," Lance began to say. His hand then came up and touched Destiny's cheek, "the last thing I thought was, 'I'm so sorry Destiny; I love you.'"

Destiny put her one hand on his hand as it touched her cheek and then her other hand on his wrist.

"You know, I knew that you loved me, even before you kissed me. But I... I never knew what to do past there," she said to him, her eyes almost in some far off gaze. "You're the only one I'd ever fallen in love with, and the only one that I knew loved me as you do. And I didn't figure it out because I'm psychic either. I just guess one day I realized that you did love me, too."

"You know," Lance said with a half of a smile on his face, "it was kind of the same with me, too. I knew that you loved me, and that I loved you, but I didn't know what I was supposed to do either."

Then, after a moment of smiling at each other, they began to laugh. Perhaps it was because they were neither very romantic type people themselves, so it was an awkward moment for them. Perhaps it was because they both realized how ridiculous this all was. Or perhaps they just needed to laugh. Or maybe... just maybe... it was because of all these reasons that they laughed.

But whatever the reason, they did laugh.

After a moment, both of them stopped laughing and just smiled at each other.

Then, Lance's expression weakened and his hand fell from Destiny's face. He began to fall forward, not having the energy to support himself. Destiny caught him, his head on her shoulder.

"Lance," she said, sounding very concerned. She turned him so that he lay facing up in her arm.

"Romo used too much energy opening that dimensional portal," Lance said in a weakened voice. "I have to turn back."

Destiny gave him a smile and nodded. She laid him down and watched as he transformed back into a dragonite.

After he had finished, she looked at him with a smile on her face as he slept. He seemed so peaceful now. She wiped some sweat from his forehead and gazed down on him, like an angel gazing on a child as he sleeps. After a moment, she put her head on his chest and listened to the sound of his heart beating and his breath as it entered his lungs. She closed her eyes and smiled.

And soon after, Destiny slept a peaceful sleep with the one she held most dear.

Lance turned and sat up. He was in an open area, but it wasn't the same one as the one that Romo had fought Croy at. The clearing was much smaller and the trees were closer together, making the forest floor dark.

He looked around the camp to see Destiny gazing out in the distance. Her head was turned so that she couldn't see him right in her line of sight. Her chin sat in the palm of her hand; her elbow rested on her knee as she sat Indian-style.

Lance gave a small half smile at this. When she zoned out like that, she was usually daydreaming about some place far away from here, some adventure in her mind. Once he had asked her what she daydreamed about the most.

She had just smiled at Lance and given him a little wink.

"Mostly things that I can't have," she had replied. "Though, there are some things in my daydreams that I know I could have if I tried and occasionally there are things that I already have. But those are usually in some play off version of what I actually have."

He had just shaken his head and looked away from her with a laugh.

That woman could be so strange sometimes…

Destiny looked over in Lance's direction out from the corner of her eye. Her hand dropped and she turned her head fully towards Lance.

She gave him a smile.

"And how is the dragonite doing this morning?" Destiny asked Lance.

'_I feel like I was hit by a rock, but I'll live_,' he replied to Destiny through thought. '_So, how long was I out for?_'

"Over a day and a half," Destiny replied.

'_Well…At least I woke up_,' Lance commented lightheartedly.

Destiny's gaze traveled to the ground. Her eyes looked sad.

'_Des? Is something wrong?_' Lance asked, a bit worried.

"It's just that…" Destiny started. She then looked back up at Lance. "I was so sick inside when I saw you dead. I didn't want to believe it…"

'_Look, that's all behind us now_,' Lance said. '_I'm alive now, and that's all that matters, right_?'

Destiny smiled at Lance. A smirk then crept across her face as she looked at him.

"Hey, nice scar on your chest, by the way. Makes you look manlier," Destiny said to Lance, still grinning.

Lance looked down at where Croy had pierced him to see a scar.

'_Huh, you really think it makes me look manlier_?' Lance asked

"Duh," Destiny replied, "of course it does. Scars make everything look more bad-a."

She then blinked and perked up.

"Oh! I just remembered something!" Destiny said. "When we were escaping from the base after getting back Julius, we took a hostage who just also happens to have had a couple vials of this stabilizer and—"

'_Okay, slow down a bit there_,' Lance said. '_I suppose that I should say that Fate filled me in on that stuff already_.'

"Oh. Well—" Destiny began, but was then cut off.

"I found some berries, guys!" Sally's voice rang.

A woman in a tan tank top and light blue shorts walked into the clearing. She had jet-black hair that came down to her mid-back. Her eyes were a dark brown color and had a glint of dominance in them.

Her arms were full of berries, and she looked eager to drop them.

Behind her stumbled a man with dirty blonde hair. His eyes were light green and he wore a brown T-shirt. The dark blue jeans he was sporting were covered in dirt. He, too, carried an armful of berries, though he had nearly dropped them when he came close to tripping as he entered the clearing.

Lance stared at the two as Anne; Ricky, in his human form; and Emily walked in with bunches of berries as well.

His first guess was then confirmed.

'_You got the cure made for Sally and Julius!_' Lance thought to Destiny.

"Yep, those are our good ol' friends. Ms. Emily Richardson here was a huge help," Destiny replied. "She used her pokémon to teleport us to safety after you and I fell asleep; then she stabilized Ricky there; and then she had her pokémon teleport Sally, Julius, and me to her basement laboratory where we cooked up the cure for those two from my memory of the formula. I tell you, it would have been chaos without her.

"Oh, and speaking of useful things that she can do, she's got one more vial of that stabilizer stuff with your name on it!" Destiny said, finishing up.

Lance just stared. That was it? It was just that easy? No strings attached? Usually there was something more complicated involved.

"But you have to be in human form to be able to take the injection," Emily stated, having heard the last part of Destiny and Lance's conversation.

Lance turned his head a little and gave a suspicious look to Emily. He then glanced over at Ricky.

The man seemed to be doing all right… for now. But Lance was pretty sure the guy would keel over soon or something because of the "stabilizer."

Suddenly a light flashed in the midst of them. All covered their eyes, and unfortunately, all those holding berries dropped the berries they had been holding.

As soon as the light faded everyone quickly dropped their arms from blocking their view.

And there stood Fate, pink pajamas, two braids, stuffed monkey, and all.

"Making a grand entrance as always, eh, Fate?" Destiny asked dryly. "So what trouble are we in that we haven't realized yet?"

"Oh, none for now. I just showed up to inform Lance that he needs to stop being picky and take the stupid stabilizer," Fate replied, looking at Destiny.

Fate's gaze then trailed to Lance, who was in his human form.

Lance looked down at his hands and blinked.

"Um, I didn't—," Lance began.

"Nope, I instantly made you that way because seeing you morph is stinking grueling," Fate commented.

"It'sa ta author!" Julius exclaimed, pointing at Fate.

Sally glared at Julius.

"Isn't that cure setting your brains straight yet?" she asked, looking peevish.

"Depends, do I get a cookie if I say 'yes'?" Julius asked in reply, a stupid smile plastered on his face.

Sally rolled her eyes and sighed.

"Sorry Sally, he'll act like that occasionally. The cure only helped him to a certain point; it's the only thing that could be done if he was to keep his psychic powers," Fate said.

"And it's for the entertainment of the viewers!" Julius pointed out, pointing upwards.

"And you might want to listen to his so called, 'crazy ranting.' Some of it's not as crazy as you think, and most of it is true in some way or form," Fate commented. "With the exception of stuff that makes no sense any way you think about it."

"Wait," Lance said, getting up. "Back up. You're telling me that if I take this stabilizer, that it will do exactly as she thinks it will?"

"Yep," Fate answered with a nod. "You'll stay you as long as you want, transforming won't be painful and it won't take nearly as long, and you'll still be able to do all of that cool attack stuff while human. All the goodies in one package, but Destiny still isn't allowed to find a cure for you being part dragonite."

There was a moment of awkward silence.

"Look! I happen to like happy endings, okay? Why else would I have risked my butt to bring Lance back from the dead? Huh? Besides, Lance needs to be human for the beginning of the next adventure I have planned out. If he's not, Destiny and him can't have kids!" Fate ranted, waving her arms about, stuffed monkey swinging every which direction.

Everyone was quiet, allowing what Fate had just said to sink in.

Destiny turned deep red, while Lance looked away, blushing slightly. Everyone looked back and forth between the two of them.

"Oh, come on, people. Like you didn't already see that coming," Fate pointed out, putting her hands on her hips, stuffed monkey dangling from her hand by its arm.

"Um, no, actually, what with her saying they were friends all that time and all," Anne said, looking to the side.

"Actually," Emily said, holding her hand a little ways into the air, "I thought that they were already married, or else fiancés."

"Thank you," Fate said, with a nod to Emily. "And what I meant was that you guys had at least thought that they would get married and stuff."

Nodding and murmurs of agreement were heard throughout the group.

"Hello, Lance and I are right here!" Destiny said, quite embarrassed with what was going on.

"Well, I have to go. I need to prepare for things to come. Trust me, there's a lot of preparing to be done, too. Don't be surprised if nothing happens for more than several years," Fate said. "Sheesh, and I still have to sort out how many kids everyone has and what the kids do… This is all a mess."

"Well, you could just let us be and not have to deal with it," Destiny commented hopefully.

Fate looked at her and then burst into laughter.

"Oh, that's a good one. Okay, bye now!" Fate said with a wave of her hand.

Her image faded and then disappeared all together.

Silence filled the small clearing.

And, of course, Julius broke it.

"Doctor! Administer the shot, stat! Status… quo," he rambled. He then blinked and frowned. "Now why on God's green Earth did I just do that?"

"Gain your sanity back for the moment?" Sally asked.

"As much sanity as I've ever managed to have," Julius replied.

"Good, help me get more berries, seeing as we've dropped them all on the ground," Sally commanded him.

"Um… Yellow marshmallows eat pie from outer there!" Julius shouted, pointing downward.

"Nice try, now move it or loose a limb," Sally replied.

"Aww…" Julius responded, slouching with disappointment.

"We'll come, too," Anne said, speaking for Ricky as well. "Destiny, do you want to help, or do you want to be here while she gives Lance the shot? Your telepathy would be a big help."

"Nah, you have Julius. He's still capable of pulling off telepathy, so you should be good," Destiny replied.

"Telepathy… Now why didn't we think of that in the first place?" Sally commented. "Well, come on everyone, we'll need as many eyes as possible to look for more berries."

Sally, Julius, Anne, and Ricky all walked out of the clearing and into the thick of the woods, being extra careful not to step on any of the dropped berries.

Emily then took a pokéball out from her pocket and threw it into the air. A kadabra appeared out of it.

"Well, to my lab, Mr. T, and bring all three of us," she commanded her kadabra.

The kadabra's eyes glowed and then the four of them appeared in a lab. Well, a basement turned laboratory, to be more precise.

"Alright, I'll just need to take the sample from the fridge and get a clean syringe," Emily said, scampering quickly to find the needed items.

Destiny looked at Lance who in turn looked at her.

"So, that Fate is quite a funny one, huh?" Destiny asked.

"Uh, sure," Lance replied.

"Us… Kids… Heh, that's just crazy," she said.

"Yep."

The two stood there for a moment, blushing a bit and fidgeting.

"You know, Stephanie's a nice name, don't you think? I mean for a girl. I've always wanted to name my daughter that," Destiny said.

"What if it were a boy?" Lance asked.

"Jason, Jay for short," Destiny replied.

"Hmm, I always thought that Rosetta was a good name for a girl. You know, call her Rose for short." Lance said.

"Boy?"

"Couldn't decide between Gregory or Donovan," Lance answered.

"Gregory?" Destiny asked, sounding like she was about to laugh.

"Greg for short. It's a nice, strong name."

"No, no child of mine will be named Gregory," Destiny said.

Suddenly the two of them stopped.

"Did we just…" Destiny began.

"I think so," Lance confirmed.

"I hate Fate," Destiny said, crossing her arms and looking away.

"Welcome to the club, we even have jackets. They're fairly new, really. Took a while to come up with a slogan and design," Lance said. "We couldn't decide between 'Fate's the Devil' and 'Fate's Satan's Mother.' We decided to go with the first one."

Destiny laughed and shook her head.

"What's sad is that, even though she knows we hate her and insult her, she never strikes us down with lightning," she said.

"Oh, that's because we're her favorite pawns. You should know that already," Lance replied.

"Still…" Destiny started.

But she didn't finish, merely gazed down at the floor.

"I found it!" Emily shouted.

Emily then stood up from behind one of the tables with junk piled beneath it. In her hand that she held above her head was the needle-ended syringe.

"Sorry it took so long. I had misplaced my syringes," she explained.

Emily then took the sample formula out from her pocket and carefully filled the syringe with the liquid.

"There, now I can give you the shot, and we can be back in a flash!" she shouted happily.

"Emily, you've been a big help, I couldn't thank you enough," Destiny said with a smile. "If there's anything you ever need, if you let us know, we'll do all we can to help."

"Well, being able to keep my job and life would be a big help," Emily commented.

"Oh, don't worry; I have something that will probably ensure you'll end up just fine," Destiny said with a grin.

"Really?" Emily asked.

Destiny nodded.

"But you'll need to give Lance the stabilizer stuff first," Destiny commented.

"Oh, right," Emily said with a nod.

Emily then walked over to Lance and moved a chair near him. He sat down and she took a small pack from her pocket, opened it, and took out a small, wet cloth that she rubbed on a small area of Lance's shoulder.

Destiny then made a funny face at Lance.

"What are you—?" he began.

And just then, Emily stuck him in the shoulder with the needle, injecting the stabilizer into his blood stream.

Lance closed his eyes and gritted his teeth, probably more from surprise then anything else.

Emily removed the syringe from his arm and wiped the blood starting to form at the injection point. She discarded the syringe into a nearby trashcan and then taped a bandage over the spot.

"Oh, and Ricky informed us that the burning pain you're feeling in your arms spreads throughout the rest of your body. But not to worry, it stops fairly quickly after its spread entirely," Emily said.

"Gee, thanks for the warning," Lance said as sarcastically as he could.

"Sorry about not telling you," Destiny said, "but I figured that you might freak out."

"Thank you for your lack of confidence, Destiny," Lance remarked sarcastically, once again.

"You're welcome," she replied cheerfully.

"The pain you're feeling is probably from the change occurring in your DNA," Emily pointed out. "More specifically, it's probably just the change in your nerve cells' DNA. I'll have to look further into it when I do more research on it."

"So, it's back we go?" Destiny asked.

"Back we go, Mr. T," Emily said to her kadabra.

The four of them then were teleported back to the clearing they had been in prior to going to Emily's lab.

Emily recalled her pokémon and then went off to help the others find more berries.

Though Destiny didn't think that was what she was really up to.

A mere moment later, Espeon walked in from the other side of the small clearing, trotting forward with a sitrus berry in her mouth.

She walked up to Lance, who was sitting against a tree. She offered the berry to Lance, who took it.

"What, none for me?" Destiny asked.

Espeon sent a feeling to Destiny.

"Eh, you're right, I guess I don't need it as much as he does," Destiny said with a smile, "After all, I don't even need food at all. It's just a guilty pleasure."

Lance smiled at Destiny and ate the berry. After he finished, he wiped his mouth on his hand and looked at Destiny as she sat down a little ways from him.

"I guess I was hungrier than I thought," he said with a small smile.

"How far has the pain grown?" Destiny asked.

"Let's just say that I'm about at the halfway point."

"Sorry about that. You know, not telling you and all," Destiny commented.

"It's fine, really."

Destiny looked down to the side, away from Lance. She picked a blade of grass and began fiddling with it.

"Alright, what's wrong?" Lance inquired.

"Nothing," Destiny answered.

"Yes, something is wrong. I can tell. I won't tell you how, but I can," Lance insisted, looking at the piece of grass that Destiny was fixated on.

"It's just that… I guess we've never really considered ourselves as just friends, huh?" Destiny responded.

"Sadly, I do know what you mean," Lance said with a smile. "It's almost like we've been unofficially a couple."

"Yeah, because we're stupid and hate mushy junk and wouldn't know how to act if we were going out."

"You know, I think that's exactly it," Lance confirmed, grinning. He then gave a small wince of pain. Though, Destiny didn't notice, as she was still very interested in playing with her grass.

"Lance… Would we change if…"

"Only if you made a huge deal over it," Lance replied.

Destiny looked up and saw that his expression was light-hearted. She smiled as well.

Lance then closed his eyes and his head drooped. Destiny then got up, moved quickly to his side, and crouched down by him.

"Lance, are you—?" she started to ask.

"It got to my brain," Lance cut her off, saying.

Destiny then bit her lower lip, but couldn't stop herself.

She burst into laughter.

"That has got to be the dumbest thing I've ever heard you say!" she managed to say through her laughter.

"Don't laugh, my head really hurts. You try thinking with your head feeling as though it's on fry," Lance said in his defense.

It took several moments before Destiny ceased her laughing fit.

"I'm sorry, it's just that hearing you say something that sounded so stupid, it really was hilarious," Destiny commented, wiping some of the tears from her eyes.

Espeon sent a feeling to Destiny.

"It was too all that funny. It's not my fault that your sense of humor is dry," Destiny replied to the espeon.

Lance shook his head and smiled a little.

"I'm glad you're so concerned that I'm in pain," he said.

"I'm sorry; it's just really funny, to me. I really shouldn't be laughing," Destiny said, trying to be serious.

"You know, sometimes I wonder about you…" Lance said, hand on his head.

"So, umm," Destiny started, trying to think of a change of topic, "Romo seems to have been doing well, huh?"

"Um, yeah, sure," Lance replied, raising an eyebrow.

"I still think it's real weird the way he's connected to you," Destiny said. "It's weird, and for the most part, I almost don't get it… I almost never really did, in a certain sense. After all, his body for this dimension is bonded to you, but he doesn't really LIVE in this dimension. His true body's in another dimension altogether. It's strange."

"Yeah, you got the basic idea," Lance replied.

"But then, he's also bonded to other people in other dimensions, right?" she asked.

"Yeah," Lance answered.

"But then… What happens to Romo when one of you connected to Romo dies?" Destiny asked. "I never really found that out. I mean, I know he survives, just not the other details."

"Well, the person dies and Romo loses physical connection to that dimension until he finds another to bond to," Lance answered.

"Huh… Well, that's not fair because if he was killed in this world using your body, you would die, right? And even then, he would still live, right?" Destiny inquired, but it was more to confirm then actually discover.

"Well, yeah, if he receives a fatal wound while using his body that's bonded to mine, I die, but his true form won't die. (I thought you already knew that.) Though, he'd end up receiving the wound in his true body, it would heal up fairly quickly, since dimensional guardians are immortal in their true bodies."

"Well, that's quite confusing. (And yeah, I did know, I was just making sure I had my facts straight,)" Destiny answered.

"Oh, well it is real weird and all, but it's how it works," Lance replied. He then winced.

"And then he also knows everything that all the people bonded to him are going through, right? Boy, that would be confusing. Not to mention, how does he keep who he's talking to straight? I think I'd explode if I had to keep up with all that," Destiny said.

"Well, dimensional guardians are made to put up with that stuff; at least that's what Romo says," Lance replied.

"So when he chose you to bond with, did he do it because you were the person closest to me or for some other reason?" Destiny asked.

"Well, it was for two reasons, actually: that reason and because my body would be easiest to bond to," Lance answered.

"It's still sort of depressing when I think about him trying to send me back or get me killed and me not being able to do a thing about it… It was real scary, actually. The thought that you would get killed if I killed him… but if I didn't—if I didn't kill him—I could have been sent back to my own world. Either way, I lost you; however, in the end you were able to stop him and able to convince him to look further into things before banishing me back to my home world. It was then discovered that I wasn't the source of all the stuff that had been messing up, those weird phenomenons. Trust me, that had been such a relief for me," Destiny said, "and the best part was, I didn't lose you."

"Yeah, it was a lucky thing that things ended the way they did," Lance replied.

"Too lucky. Even though it was a headache at the time, imagine what we would've had to do to get rid of Croy without Romo being there to banish him into the other dimension!" Destiny commented.

Lance grinned and then winced again.

"Lance, how bad is it?" Destiny asked.

"Well, it's hit my whole body now, but the good thing is, I think that the pain in my arm is starting to lessen."

Destiny smiled.

"You're tougher than Ricky. He couldn't even talk much during that phase," Destiny said. "The only words we got were, 'Burning… all over…' He wasn't very conversational until after most of the pain was gone."

"Yeah, but I've been through more, remember?" Lance said, one eye closed, now, "I've even died from a fatal wound. That kid hasn't been through that much, comparatively."

"I still think that it's impressive," Destiny replied with a smirk and a wink.

Lance took a long, ragged breath and then exhaled.

"Wow, it burns," he said.

"It should be done faster than it came," Destiny commented, "At least, that's how it was with Ricky."

"I sure hope you're right, I don't think I can stand… Well I'll be," Lance said.

"What? Was I right or not?" Destiny asked with a smirk.

"The pain is already numbing and leaving," Lance said, actually a bit surprised by how quickly the pain was going.

"Oh, don't look so astonished; it's not very becoming of you," Destiny said, smiling.

Lance looked at her and grinned. His pain was nearly gone now and he had just thought of something fun to do until the others returned.

He stood up and offered his hand to Destiny. She took it, wondering what he had in mind.

"Care to dance, madam?" he asked. "I'm still a bit sore, but a little waltz wouldn't hurt."

She grinned as he lifted her to the standing position.

"Well, yes, of course I'll dance with you; though, it won't be nearly as fun without the water under our bare feet," Destiny answered. "I like it better when we dance on the lake."

"Does that mean you'll dance with me here or not?" Lance asked, smiling and bringing his face closer to hers.

Destiny brought her face a little closer to Lance's.

"Let's," was her grinned answer.

So Lance and Destiny came together. He put his hand on her waist; she placed her hand on his shoulder; both grasped the other's free hand.

Both smiled and then Lance and Destiny danced, slow in motion and fit for the other.

"I can't reach this one, could you get it for me, please, Julius?" Emily asked, standing on tiptoe, trying to reach a berry that was just a finger's length away.

Julius looked at the berry and it floated down to her.

"There you are, miss," he said with a grin.

"Julius, quit flirting with the doctor and get me that one right there. I already can tell I wouldn't be able to reach it," Sally said, pointing up into the tree.

"Sally, I'm being polite, not flirting. You know that I love you," Julius said to his girlfriend.

"Alright, whatever, just get me the berry, please," Sally commanded politely.

"Sally, what's bothering you?" Julius asked, knowing the woman all too well. "I know you've got something on your mind, and I really don't want to read it. I'm too afraid you'd kill me if I did."

"Darn right I would. Now get me that berry," Sally replied.

Julius shook his head and the berry slowly descended down to Sally. On its way to her hands, Sally couldn't help but look sorry and sigh.

"Actually, Julius, I have been wondering something," Sally said, grabbing the floating berry.

"What?" Julius asked while looking at Sally, yet, in a way, already having known what was coming.

"Do you remember much of what you knew during when you were loopy?" she asked.

"Kind of. I remember everything that happened, but not always what was going through my head," Julius answered. "Why?"

"Because, I was wondering if you could clarify a few things," Sally replied.

"Okay, shoot. If I know, I'll tell," he responded. He then used his telepathy to pick off a sitrus berry from a tree.

"Do you remember what it was that Croy was up to?" Sally asked.

Julius grabbed the berry and then looked at Sally. Everyone else had stopped and looked at Julius.

"Yes," he answered, looking up at the tree, "he trying to do two things. The first and foremost was to take over the team that we had worked for, but the second was the one that tormented him the most. Croy was searching for what Daemon had been up to before Daemon had died."

"Daemon?" Ricky said, sounding puzzled.

"He's who Croy was a clone of," Sally answered.

"Oh," Ricky replied, "right."

"Do you know what Daemon was up to?" Sally asked.

Julius shook his head no.

"I think I used to know, but I can't remember anymore," he answered.

"Bummer," Sally responded.

"All I remember is that it was important enough that Croy let Lance get away with Destiny that time I was supposed to teleport her off but then fell asleep," Julius said. "Fate gave him the information in exchange."

"Fate's a real charm, and I hope she knows that," Sally said sarcastically.

"Hey, speaking of Fate, do you know what's up with that woman?" Anne asked.

"Fate? Yeah, I do remember that," Julius answered. "She's a real hard one to explain, I suppose. You see, she's the one that controls this entire world. She's like its goddess almost, but she's not really. In fact, she's more of an author and we are part of her book. One day, she too will die. Unfortunately, that means that any trace of us will die with her. Her death is this world's end as well, in a way, as well as the death of any other world that she oversees. She also has others that she's under in a sort of indirect command. Basically, all it is her religion, though, as well as certain others. But mostly, she just answers to God. Anything that she thinks God wouldn't want her to do, she doesn't do. That's why she didn't want to bring Lance back from the dead. It just seemed wrong to her. (And that's also why it wouldn't be a bad idea to pray to Him for help every once and again.)

"Anyway, what I find most interesting about her is that her and Destiny used to be the same person," Julius finished by saying.

"Wait, what?" Sally said, quite stunned.

"That's right," Julius replied. "Destiny and Fate used to be the same person. Destiny used to be the Fate of worlds, but once she wished to be here, her and Fate were separated, without Destiny's knowledge. Not to say she doesn't know that now. Anyway, now they're two completely different people. Well, almost."

"What do you mean by 'almost'?" Anne asked.

"See, Fate can't truly ever exist in this world," Julius replied, "so what Destiny felt before she arrived here is still embedded in Fate, if you even understand that. Anyway, once Destiny arrived here, the two different experiences that the two encountered caused them to veer further apart in personality. However, they both share certain things."

"Like what?" Sally asked.

"There are a few things," answered Julius, "like both still like adventure. Though, Fate's brand of adventure is more than Destiny cares for. Another thing is that they both like the same pokémon. Also, both believe that Daemon is Satan reincarnated. However, there's one thing that seems a bit strange and sad all at the same time.

"You see, both of them are in love with Lance."

The group was quiet. Shocked a bit, in fact.

"But, then... Why would Fate have allowed Lance to die?" Anne asked.

"No one was expecting it, that's why," Julius answered. "Some adventure requires sacrifice, and he just happened to be the perfect lamb. Lucky for Destiny though, Fate needed Lance to be around for the next adventure, so she had almost no choice but to bring him back."

"Wait, if Fate loves Lance, why doesn't she just have him fall in love with her?" Anne asked.

"Because no matter what, Fate would never have Lance in her own world. Just this world, where all we see is an illusion of her," Julius answered. "And it does seem cruel to have something in one's mind, but not in one's arms. So she just allows Destiny and Lance to be together so that they'll be happy."

"Hmm, Fate seems to actually have a caring bone or two," Sally stated. "Or does she?"

"Well, she has to act tough. If she didn't, then how could she keep her little pawns in check?" Julius replied. "And if her pawns aren't in check, then who knows how out of hand things could get? You heard her, she said that she liked happy endings. If she weren't in full charge, then how would it be assured there was a happy ending of at least some sort?"

"Good point," Sally responded.

"Of course it is," Julius replied.

"Wait, back up," Anne said. "I'm curious; do you know what Fate's up to next?"

"Huh? Well, not anymore. Though from the conversation with her, earlier, I'm sure that it has to do a lot with children... maybe even just one child... Child... Where... Oh, forget it. I can't remember."

"Remember what?" Emily asked.

"Why that word rings such a bell, but I can't remember what it is, no matter how hard I try to remember," Julius answered.

"Oh well," Sally said, "looks like we just have to settle with what we have for now. Back to picking berries for now, I suppose."

"Wait," Anne said.

Julius looked at her, followed in gaze by everyone else.

"You said you could remember some things, but not others... Why?" Anne asked.

Julius grinned and threw a berry into the air, catching it. His feet shifted and a twinkle entered his eyes.

His answer was given as though wisdom of the highest manner; though, it probably was composed of words of great insight.

"That's because this is all what the author wishes."

Destiny looked at the broken down shack.

"It's quite a fixer-upper, but I guess when you have to move, you have to move," Lance said, standing next to the woman.

"I really am upset we had to leave such a wonderful house and view though. I'm really going to miss that lake," Destiny said.

"Yes, but at least we have a spring right by the house. And we're up in the mountains, so that makes it easier to hide," he responded.

"Moving from Sinnoh to Kanto without leaving a trail was a real hassle, though," Destiny said to the man.

"Don't worry, as long as Daemon or Croy doesn't come back, we should stay out of sight for good this time," Lance replied. "Of course, that's if Team Industry doesn't find us in the next several years."

"Jee, I feel so much better," Destiny said sarcastically, rolling her eyes.

"Well, I'm glad to hear that," Lance said to her as her wrapped an arm around Destiny's shoulders, smiling all the while.

Destiny grinned and shook her head.

Her expression then became dimmer.

"I'm kind of sad Emily can't visit us, though," Destiny said, looking down.

"Yeah, but we had to do what we had to do," Lance replied.

Destiny had blocked the memories of them in Emily's mind and Julius had dropped her off inside the anti-psychic shield around the Team Industry mountain base. Emily wouldn't remember anything that had happened while she was with Lance, Destiny, and the others, but the memories could be reopened, just in case they needed Emily in the future.

Also, as a thank you to Emily, she would find that she had fifty thousand more pokédollars than she'd thought she'd had.

"Speaking of which, shouldn't our new friends be here soon to help us fix up this junk?" Lance asked, jabbing a thumb to the house.

"Yeah, but just in case they forget, it's a good thing we got our pokémon back before we left," Destiny said with a grin. "We'd have to fix it ourselves if it weren't for that."

Lance's dragonite had gotten back a couple days after Destiny had left. Apparently it had gotten "distracted" by a flygon.

For a couple weeks.

In the end the dragonite and flygon had decided to go back to the house together. It was a bit late though.

But putting that all aside, the other pokémon had been fine since they'd been in hiding the whole time.

Lance smiled at Destiny, took his arm off her shoulders, and took hold of her hand with his hand. Destiny looked back at him and smiled as well.

"Lance, no matter what happens, no matter what, we'll always make the best of it," she said.

"That's a promise," Lance replied.

And Destiny laughed, letting loose her hold on Lance. She ran forward soon followed by Lance, who walked after Destiny, into their new home.

---

[Author's Note: The End! Of _Experiment_, that is! Did anyone notice that Part 1 has "Book 1 of the Sixth Saga" written near the beginning? That's right, people, there's more. I don't know how many you'll get to see, but I'm getting closer and closer to thinking I'll actually have the sequel _Child_ done by the end of this year. (Did you just connect what Julius was talking about in the second to last section? About the whole, "child" things?) I also have awesome ideas for a third and fourth book.

As for what I have to say about Part 6… It's cheesy, but I don't know how to make it not without tearing it to ribbons, so it's got to stay the way that it is. It's also the only titled Part because I felt it needed that. I hope that it answered enough questions. I made my friends tell me what they were puzzled about and wrote those into the last part.

Also, does anyone know if I can get away with using a chapter or two past this one for extras? You know, like how each character developed, what got left out of the story and why, stuff like that. If you know, please leave a review telling me if I can do that or not. I want to put up extras for this story. And if it turns out I can, try requesting what you'd like to see in the extras! Who knows, I might use your idea.

Anyway, thank you so much for reading this! I hope you enjoyed it! Leave a review whether you did or didn't. I like to know people's opinions. I'm sick of only my friends telling me their opinion (which is just a wee bit biased). Again:

Thank you!

"Does this mean I won't get to entertain the masses anymore?"

Julius, how did you get into my author's note?

"Umm… you left the back door open?"

((shakes head)). You are really something else.

"Shake my yellow song, baby~!"

Julius, you're going to get to be in the sequel, so stop being an attention hog.

"Yes, ma'am…"

Like I said before… The End!]


End file.
